Together Again
by MS1985
Summary: The original rangers meet again during Christmas 2005. Mostly Jason/Trini, but pretty much all the original rangers will be involved.
1. Chapter 1

It's a Jason/Trini story, but will include all of the original rangers. I don't think I'm writing them out of characters, just more like normal people. They make more mistakes, and they are less naïve than on the show.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

The story hasn't been beta'd. I'm sure there are plenty of mistakes. I apologize in advance.

Chapter 1 – Trini Comes to Town

January 2, 1991

Angel Grove Elementary

Ms. Simpson walked into her fourth grade class and frowned. As usual, none of the students was in his or her assigned seats. Most were simply hanging with their friends, catching up after the long Christmas break. A group of four girls, better known as Heathers were sitting in the corner conversing in a low tone and then laughing loudly every so often. Their focus was on another group of four; Jason Scott, Zack Taylor, and Billy Cranston formed a circle around Kimberly Hart's desk. The four were chatting and laughing. One of the Heathers rolled up a piece of paper into a ball and threw it at the back of Jason, finally hitting him on the head after missing three times.

"Hey!" Jason turned, frowning at the Heathers.

Heather #1 batted her lashes and smiled as flirtatiously as any ten year old could, "Want to come sit with us?"

"No, thanks." Dismissed Jason, turning back to his friends. While it wasn't in Jason's nature to be rude to anybody, he found the Heathers to be annoying and the worst kind of troublemakers. They were always making fun of Billy and often tried to get Kimberly into trouble. They tolerated Zack because everyone knew that Zack would not hesitate to get even. And they were always trying to be friend Jason. Zack said it was because the Heathers found him "hot". Jason, with a befuddled expression, had complained that he would rather be cool.

Kimberly frowned at the other girls before continuing her story, "Anyway, I heard she is really smart. I think Mrs. Lange said she won the third grade Texas state wide science fair competition."

"Wow, she must be almost as smart as Billy," said Zack, sounding really impressed.

Billy too, looked impressed, "I am positive that she surpasses me in intelligence."

Kimberly's brow furrowed, "Huh?"

Billy took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, "Intelligence, manifestation of a high mental capacity."

"Okay," Kimberly waved both hands in front of Billy, "speak to ME."

Billy put his glasses back on and thought really hard, "eh…I guess I was trying to say that this new student is much smarter than I am."

"No way, man. You are a genius. You must be the smartest dude in the whole world, possibly the entire universe. This girl…she is just…a very smart girl." Jason said.

Billy blushed and Kimberly giggled while Zack nodded his head, obviously in agreement with Jason.

"Okay, everyone back to your seat." Ms. Simpson announced, and the boys returned to their assigned seats reluctantly.

A young girl appeared at the doorway just as Ms. Simpson was finishing roll call. "Great, Trini, you are here, come on in."

The young girl stepped hesitantly into the classroom. She was of average height, had long almost jet-black hair. Her dark eyes darted quickly around the room before settling on Ms. Simpson. Ms. Simpson smiled at the young girl encouragingly, "Class, this is Trini Kwan. Her family just moved to Angel Grove. She will be in our class this year. Trini, do you want to tell the class a little bit about yourself?"

Trini flushed and shook her head, wishing the ground would simply opens up and swallows her. She has always hated it when the focus was on her.

The Heathers snickered and Jason frowned, raising his hand.

"Yes, Jason?" asked Ms. Simpson.

"Ms. Simpson, can I ask Trini where she is from?"

Ms. Simpson smiled, silently thanking Jason. It would be much easier for Trini to answer a few simple questions rather than doing a monologue. "Of course. Trini?"

Trini glanced at Jason and he smiled at her, a genuine, friendly smile, which helped to alleviate her fear somewhat. She answered in a soft voice, "Houston."

"That's in Texas, right?" Kim asked, already knowing the answer since she was nosing around in the office and heard Trini's mom speaking with the school secretary.

Trini nodded; glad to see another friendly face, "Right."

"Wow, that's far." Zack added. "I mean you are totally from another state."

"Looks more like from another planet." Heather #2 muttered, but made sure she was loud enough to be heard.

"Lucy! Apologize to Trini before I send you to the principal's office," admonished Ms. Simpson.

Lucy rolled her eyes, "I'm so sorry!"

Trini frowned but didn't say anything. Ms. Simpson sighed, "Any another questions?"

Billy raised his hand, "May I inquire what did you undertake for your science fair project last year?"

Trini looked surprised, but she smiled involuntarily, "it was using fruits and vegetables to produce electricity."

"Really? Were you able to achieve the expected results?"

Trini answered enthusiastically, "Yeah, it worked best with—"

Heather #1 raised her hand, pretending to yawn. Ms. Simpson sighed as Trini stopped talking and glanced at Shannon warily. Ms. Simpson was tempted to simply ignore the girl, but the Heathers had a reputation of refusing to be ignored. And, during one of the winter seminars that she had just attended, they were all advised to encourage the students to express themselves, so she mustered a smile, "Yes, Shannon?"

"I just want to welcome Trini to Angel Grove."

While Trini might be young, she was an excellent judge of characters. Her dad had always reminded her "if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's a duck." Trini had often applied the same logic, "if it talks like a brat and smirks like a brat, then it's a brat." If that smirk on Shannon's face was any indication, Trini was not on the brat's welcoming list. Still, aside from calling her a liar, there wasn't much she could have done, so Trini nodded a bit uncertainly, "thank you."

Shannon's smirk turned into a sneer, "And honey, if your parents are looking for work, my mom is looking for someone to do laundry."

The rest of the Heather gang all giggled while Ms. Simpson gasped and Trini squared her shoulder, her fear forgotten and her natural feisty spirit kicked in, "Thank you, but I'm afraid I must decline your so generous offer since my dad has just accepted the Chief of Staff position in Angel Grove General and my mom is starting her own startup company. Perhaps your mom should consider buying a really good washing machine. My mom tells me that any idiot can learn to use one."

The class laughed while the four Heathers looked pissed. Ms. Simpson smiled, the girl might be shy, but when push comes to shove, that little girl was no pushover. "Trini, why don't you take the empty seat behind Kimberly. Kim, please raise your hand."

Kimberly waved both hands in the air enthusiastically and beamed at Trini. Trini soon found herself smiling back. She grabbed her backpack and walked over to Kim, sitting behind her, which put her right next to Jason.

Jason leaned over, "Welcome to Angel Grove."

Trini nodded shyly, "thank you."

**

"Come on, Trini, we have P.E. next. I think we are doing try outs for the Citywide Track and Field competition coming up next month. Oh, did you get your uniform yet?" Kimberly asked, pulling Trini after her. Kimberly had decided that she likes the pretty Asian. Besides, Jason seemed to like her, and Jason could always pick out the losers. Look at how great a friend Billy turned out to be, but had it not been for Jason, Kimberly would have never made friend with someone as nerdy as Billy Cranston. At one point, Kim had considered joining the Heathers until Jason had wisely pointed out that the girls sole purpose was to make other people miserable. Just had Jason predicted, the girls had been nothing but rude and obnoxious ever since Kim had refused to become Heather #5.

Meanwhile, Trini went searching through her backpack and not really paying attention to where she was going. She followed Kimberly into the locker room and pulled out her PE uniform at the same time. "Yeah, it's right here."

"Okay, hurry up and change."

Trini rounded the curve and sprinted to the finish line. She slowed to a walk and smiled at her new friend, Kim, who was bouncing up and down in excitement. Before Trini could make her way over, Ms. Murphy, the PE teacher, called everyone over. "Well, I have fabulous news, class. Trini Kwan has set a new school record of the fastest one-mile run for girls. Her time of seven minutes and one second is the best time we have ever had in this school, even topping the fifth graders by over sixty seconds. This is a new record for Angel Grove Elementary. It looks like we have a new track star."

Kim rushed over and hugged Trini and a few other girls congratulated her. Trini grinned. She might not like the attention, but she was still a normal 10 year old, and she was quite proud of herself for setting the new school record. Her grin faded when she caught the four Heathers shooting death glares at her. Trini sighed silently, telling herself to keep her distance from the Heathers. Not that she was afraid of the girls, but the last thing she needed was for her mom to come down to the school because she decked another student on her first day.

By the end of the class, Trini had set more school records for high jump and the softball throw. The class was in high spirit since their chances of winning had improved significantly. While the boys had always done well during the citywide competition, the girls had gotten very few blue ribbons. Ms. Murphy kept repeating how well Trini was doing and had already put her down in six different competitions. By the time Ms. Murphy had explained to Trini all of her up coming events, Kimberly had already went inside the building. Trini frowned, hoping she would be able to find the locker room. She set off for the school building but was intercepted by Heather #3.

"Trini, can you help us put away the cones?" Heather #3 asked.

Trini wanted to say no, but she didn't want to escalate any more animosity. While she didn't care about being friends with the Heathers, she didn't want to start off her first day by acquiring four classmates as enemies. Perhaps if she showed that she was willing to be friendly, the Heathers would have no reason to dislike her so much. She nodded and stacked three of the cones together, holding them in both arms. She refrained from pointing out that all of the Heathers were empty handed.

"Come on, it's this way."

Trini followed the Heathers back into the building, heading toward the locker room. Heather #1 pointed to a doorway across from the girls' locker room, "Storage room is over there."

Heather #2 and 3 pushed the door open, nodding to Trini. With the big cones in her arms, it was difficult for little Trini to see where she was going. She took a tentative step over the door and all of a sudden felt a hard push on her back. She stumbled into the room and lost her balance, falling knees first onto the ground, the big, orange cones rolling away from her. She looked up in horror to see a couple dozens of boys standing in front of her, some were fully dressed, some were half dressed, and some in nothing but their boxers. "Hey, what are you doing in the boy's locker room?" One boy screamed at her. Another boy threw his pants at her and Trini came to her senses. She jumped up and almost started to cry, "I'm…I'm sorry."

She backed away as a couple of the boys came toward her smirking. Trini had backed all the way to the door, but the door would not open. Panic set in and a lone tear rolled down her face.

"Hey, back off," a fully dressed Jason jumped in front of Trini, pushing the two fifth graders away.

"Go play saint somewhere else, Jason," one of the boys snickered. "She came in nosing around, we just want to show her what she was so eager to see."

"I said back off," Jason yelled, keeping Trini behind him. "Leave her alone, Todd."

Using all her strength, Trini slammed her shoulder against the door, finally pushing the four Heathers away. Anger quickly set in as she tossed her long, black hair behind her and marched out of the boys' locker room. Jason ran after her, "Trini…"

Ignoring Jason, Trini marched over to the four Heathers, who were standing together snickering. "Why?"

Shannon put her hands on her hips and glared at the young girl, "This is my school, my turf. You don't get to come in here on the first day and steal my glory. I was the best chance for this stupid school to win any kind of ribbon before you showed up. You don't set school record on the first day and set your claws into the boy that I like. This is just kids' stuff. You mess with me again and I will mess you up good—ouch…"

Jason stood a couple of steps behind Trini and watched with a mixture fascination and horror as Trini balled up her fist and slammed it into Shannon's face. Shannon clutched her face, screamed, and fell onto the floor. Trini turned to the other Heathers who quickly scrambled away, all yelling, "It was Shannon's idea."

Before Trini could do anything else, Mr. Phillips, the boy's PE teacher grabbed her by the arm, "What is this? You are coming with me, young lady." He waved at two girls that were watching the fight, "Help this young lady down to the nurse's office." The two girls gave Trini a look of sympathy and then helped Shannon to her feet and walked off with her down the hall. "Everyone else go back to class." Mr. Phillips bellowed as he escorted Trini to the principal's office.

"Mr. Phillips, it isn't her fault!"

"Jason, go back to class."

"Mr. Phillips!"

"Jason, go to class now before I put you on detention."

Jason looked at Trini helplessly and was surprised when she smiled at him and mouthed "thank you." Then, without a backward glance, she followed Mr. Phillips to the principal's office.

**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"You can't just expel her on her first day. Doesn't she at least get a warning first?" Mrs. Kwan demanded, watching as her child bit down hard enough on her lower lip to draw blood, all in an effort to stop herself from crying.

"Trini initiated a fight on her first day in school. Our PE teacher, Mr. Phillip, saw her punched another student. Mrs. Kwan, I don't know what the school systems are like in Houston, but we do not allow that kind of behavior in Angel Grove." Principle Harris said sternly. "Look, Mrs. Kwan, I have read Trini's profile, and I know about her martial arts background and –"

"And that is why Trini would never hurt anyone unprovoked. We encourage Trini to study martial arts not only because it helps her develop self-defense technique but to also help her develop self-discipline and self-control."

"The fact is, Mrs. Kwan, I have a student with a broken nose and her parents are threatening to sue."

"And I am telling you that my daughter does not go around hitting people just because she can."

Mrs. Kwan was looking so fierce that Principal Harris automatically took a step back. He did not have the foresight to check to see if Mrs. Kwan was also into martial art. He hurried back to his chair, making sure that Mrs. Kwan stayed on the other side of the desk. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Kwan, but we have regulations and…" Principal Harris stopped in mid-sentence when the school secretary popped her head in, "Principal Harris, Mrs. Scott is here, and she is insisting on speaking with you."

"Mrs. Lange, couldn't you see that I'm already in the middle of one crisis? Tell Mrs. Scott she will have to wait."

Before Mrs. Lange could speak, Evelyn Scott pushed her way in, followed by a wide-eyed Jason.

"Mrs. Scott, whatever it is---"

"It can not wait." Mrs. Scott cut him off. She smiled kindly at the young girl sitting in a corner who was now watching them with wide eyes. "I think you need to hear from Jason what happened this afternoon. And if you don't believe him, there are about twenty other kids outside this office right now just waiting to let you know what really happened."

Principal Phillips sighed, while Mrs. Scott was a nice, friendly lady, she was also what Principal Harris privately termed _~a pushy broad~._ Jason, although always polite, had gotten into his fair share of troubles, usually defending that geek boy Cranston. Principal Phillips had never been able to punish Jason for any of his misdeed because Mrs. Scott would come down to the school every time, blame the school for not doing enough to provide a safe, learning environment and that the kids have to protect themselves from bullies. So, instead of punishment, Jason was often rewarded for his "heroic" deeds. Staring at the two overly protective moms standing side-by-side looking at him like he was pond scum, Principal Harris knew this was not going to be a good day. "Okay, Jason, what do you want to tell me?"

"Nothing that happened today was Trini's fault. She…the Heathers pushed her into the boys locker room and blocked the door so she couldn't get out."

"All right, even if I believe that, Trini still should not have hit Shannon. We do not condone violence in this school. She should have come to us."

"She was provoked!" Mrs. Kwan said in exasperation.

"That wasn't all," Jason glanced at Trini and debated how to voice his next statement. "When they pushed Trini into the locker room, some of the boys were not…dressed, and they were really mean to her. They said some mean things to her and threw things at her. And when Trini finally pushed her way out, the Heathers were in her face taunting her, and Shannon even threatened to mess with her again. Trini lost her temper. It wasn't like she planned to hit Shannon!"

Principal Harris sighed again, "look, Jason, if you are telling me the truth--"

"Are you calling my son a liar?" Mrs. Scott cut in, hands on her hip.

"No, of course not, but we have witnesses who saw that Trini punched Shannon hard enough give her a bloody nose, not to mention knocking her to the floor."

"And I have twenty other kids out there just waiting to collaborate Jason's story." Mrs. Scott pointed out helpfully. "For God sake, just look at her," pointing to Trini who was trying her best to melt into the wall. "Does she look like a child who would go beat up on someone just because she could? And don't forget we are talking about the Heathers, every time when someone gets into trouble, it's almost a certainty that at least one of them has a hand in it somehow."

"Provoked or not, I can not let Trini go unpunished. What kind of message would I be sending to the other kids?"

"I understand your need to discipline the kids, but you must admit that Trini doesn't deserve to be expelled." Mrs. Kwan sighed, running a frustrated hand through her dark locks, "Look, I fully understand that Trini needs to learn that there are consequences to her actions. I fully plan on grounding her for the rest of the week. If you want to suspend Trini for a few days, I will accept that, but I will take this to the school board if you insist on expelling her."

Principal Harris looked torn, "Let me go speak with the other kids first, then I will make a decision. The four of you can stay in here."

Jason waited until Principal Harris left the room, and then hurried over to Trini and sat down next to her, "you okay?"

Trini nodded, "Thanks. I mean it, Jason. Whatever happens I will always be grateful to you." She looked up at Jason's mother, "Thank you, Mrs. Scott."

"You are very welcome, honey. We just want to make sure that you are treated fairly."

"Mrs. Scott?" Mrs. Kwan held out her hand, "I'm Tricia Kwan, Trini's mom. Thank you so much for coming down and trying to help her. I just want you to know that this isn't Trini normal behavior."

Mrs. Scott smiled, shaking Mrs. Kwan hand, "I can tell. Don't worry; I know what the Heathers are like. They all have a mean, jealous streak, but I can also guarantee you that they won't bother Trini again after this."

"Oh, why is that?"

"The Heathers are bullies, they only pick on people whom they think is weaker than they are. Trini, well, your daughter didn't back down today and on top of that, she took down their leader. They won't dare to come near Trini again."

Mrs. Kwan laughed softly, "And to think we moved out here for the quiet, normal, suburban life."

The two mothers watched as Jason continued speaking softly to Trini, obviously trying to make her laugh. "Your son is very special. Not too many young boys are willing to go out on a limp for someone they barely know."

Mrs. Scott nodded in pride, "Jason is …well…he is my son and I don't want to brag, but he does have that heroic streak in him." Watching the two dark heads speaking softly to each other, Mrs. Scott added, "Besides, I think he kind of likes her."

Mrs. Kwan laughed, "Well, Trini only just turned 10 two weeks ago, maybe in a few more years?"

Mrs. Scott returned, "My boy has a lot patience when it comes to something he wants. I could very well be looking at my future daughter-in-law."

Mrs. Kwan chuckled and the two women started to chat like old friends while their off springs continued to converse quietly in the corner.

It was another fifteen minutes before Principal Harris came back into the room. Four pairs of eyes turned to him expectantly, "I have spoken with everyone outside and I think maybe I was being a little unfair to Trini. Under the circumstances, I can understand why she lost her temper. However, we do have a zero tolerance policy for violence. Trini will not be expelled nor will she be suspended. Her punishment will be two weeks of detention, effective immediately."

Mrs. Kwan sighed in relief, "Thank you, Principal Harris. That is certainly a condition that we can accept."

Principal Harris nodded, "Trini, do not, under any circumstances, hit another student again, you understand? This is serious. It doesn't matter how much you were provoked, you need to always keep your temper in check. In the future, should a similar incident occurs, you need to report it to me or one the faculty members immediately, understand?"

Trini nodded and Jason nodded along with her. Mrs. Scott grinned, "We too, thank you, Principal Harris. Come on, Jason, let's go home."

Jason stood up reluctantly and followed his mom to the door. He turned around and waived good-bye.

"Wait, Jason," Trini called and then ran to Jason, hugging him tightly, "Thank you, thank you!"

Just as quickly she stepped away, her face reddening. Jason too looked slightly embarrassed, but he grinned and waved at Trini, following his mom out the door.

**

January 5, 1991

Home of Jason Scott

Mrs. Scott was sitting on the front porch with a cup of hot tea watching Jason and Zack play basketball in the driveway. She watched as Zack performed some fancy dribbles before he charged past Jason effortlessly and sank the ball through the net. Mrs. Scott frowned, it wasn't like Jason to let anyone get pass him so easily. She followed his gaze and grinned when she caught sight of Mrs. Kwan and Trini walking down their street toward their house.

"Hey, Jase,"

"Hold on a sec, Zack." Jason interrupted and then ran down the driveway. "Trini, Hi, Mrs. Kwan."

"Hi, Jason," Trini said softly.

"Hi Jason, Trini wanted to bring you some cookies to thank you for helping her the other day." Mrs. Kwan said, pointing to the container that Trini was holding with both hands.

"Really? Geeze…I mean…you don't have to thank me. I didn't do anything."

"Jason, I would have gotten into big trouble if it wasn't for you. I would have been expelled!" Trini said, her expression serious. "You rounded up all the kids who were willing to tell Principal Harris what really happened. You even got your mom to come down to the school because you knew Principal Harris probably would not have listened to just a bunch of kids. I could never thank you enough for what you did for me. Here—" she handed the container to Jason, "I hope you like chocolate chips. My mom baked them, but I helped."

Jason took the container, "Thank you, chocolate chips are my favorite."

"Hi Trini," Zack joined them, still dribbling.

"Hey, Zack." Trini smiled at Zack, the turned and waived at Jason's mom, "Hi Mrs. Scott."

"Trini," Mrs. Scott waived back, "Tricia, come sit with me."

Mrs. Kwan walked up the porch and sat down by Mrs. Scott, the two started to chatter like old friends.

"You want to play with us?" Zack asked, tossing the ball up in the air and then catching it easily.

Trini turned to her mom, "Can I, Mom?"

"Yes, but we can not stay long. Remember you have class at 11."

"You have class on Saturday?" Jason asked, frowning.

Trini nodded, taking the ball from Zack and making the shot from when she stood. "I take Chinese every Saturday."

Zack looked impressed, "Wow, you are good. Kim has never been able to make that shot; Kim couldn't even hit the rim from where you are standing."

Jason nodded, agreeing with Zack. "Chinese? Is that hard to learn?"

Trini shrugged, following Zack's example as he showed her some of his fancy dribbling moves. "It is kind of hard, but my parents help me and sometimes they speak to me in Chinese, so I already know a little bit."

"Can I come to class with you?"

Trini looked startled but also pleased, "Sure, but you have to ask your Mom first."

"Okay," Jason took the ball from Trini and tossed it to Zack, and then grabbing hold of Trini's hand, they ran up the steps to where Mrs. Scott was. "Mom, I want to learn Chinese."

"What?" Mrs. Scott asked.

Mrs. Kwan stared at her nails, "Trini goes to Chinese school every Saturday."

Mrs. Scott nodded, obviously amused. "Well, Jason, Chinese is a very hard language to learn."

"Trini will help me if I get stuck," turning to Trini with a worried look on his face, "You will help me, right?"

Trini nodded quickly, "Of course."

Jason grinned and turned back to his mom, "So, can I, Mom?"

Mrs. Scott turned to look at Mrs. Kwan, who just shrugged and then whispered, "You are not going to deny my future son-in-law, are you?"

Mrs. Scott laughed, "Yes, Jason. We will go with Trini and Mrs. Kwan later and sign you up."

"You have another twenty minutes before we have to leave." Mrs. Kwan added.

"Okay, let's go back and play with Zack for a while." Jason said as he and Trini ran back to play with Zack.

"What was that about? Did you hear what my mom said?" Trini asked, frowning.

Jason shrugged, "No clue. Grownups can be weird sometimes."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

December 20, 2005

South Lake Tahoe, NV

Jason Scott got out his Highlander and grabbed the duffel from the back seat. He slammed the door shut and whistled softly as he inspected the house and the panoramic view of the lake with the Sierra-Nevada Mountains sitting proudly as the backdrop.

The house was huge and luxurious, two stories of rustic looking property that included an entry courtyard, waterfall, pond, professional landscaping (which currently included a winter wonderland theme) and a private pier in the back. Strategically placed tall pine trees help to create a sense of privacy and retained the rustic feel of nature best known to the visitors that flocked to the area every summer and winter. Off to one side was a guesthouse with its own private garage. Off to other side was a sprawling four-car garage and an indoor swimming pool and jacuzzi. The driveway had been cleared, but the surrounding area was covered in a thick blanket of snow.

Jason took a deep breath before heading up to the front of the house. The door was flung opened before he made it halfway and a small bundle jumped into his arms. "Jason, you are finally here!"

Jason smiled at Kimberly before setting her aside, "It's great to see you, Kim. It's been way too long."

"Jason, man, it's good to see you!" Zack Taylor ran out of the house and appeared before Jason like a gust of whirlwind, he was followed by an equally excited but less exuberant Billy Cranston.

"Zack, dude, how the heck are you?" Jason dropped his duffel and hugged the best friend he hasn't seen in a year.

"Good, man, happy, single, great job, great benefits, I'm just loving everything in life right now." Zack replied.

Jason let go of Zack and turned to his other childhood best friend, "Billy, so this is your definition of cabin by the lake, huh? I would love to see a luxury home by your standard."

Billy shrugged, "Perhaps it is marginally more capacious than most cabins, but there are many more magnificent and imposing homes in this neighborhood. Come on inside, it's freezing out here."

Jason followed the trio back into the house and once again whistled in appreciation. The interior was completely surrounded by soaring ceiling and wall-to-wall windows that ran from ceiling to floor, giving the house plenty of light and an amazing view of the lake and the surrounding area. Rustic red oak floors, hand quarried granite boulders created the 36 foot massive fireplace in the living room, extensive use of granite and other natural stones throughout the house with hand forged iron banisters. Intricately decorated garlands, poinsettias, and even mistletoes were placed strategically along the foyer and along the stairway. A huge, nine foot tall Christmas tree stood proudly in the living room, already filled with beautiful ornaments that Jason felt sure would have cost a small fortune. The house was beautiful, comfortable and exquisite, a profusion of elegance and rustic charms.

"Man, this place is absolutely gorgeous, and you guys did a fantastic job with the decoration," complimented Jason.

Kim laughed, "Are you kidding? We didn't do this. Billy had a professional decorating team brought in the tree and put up all the decorations. Oh, just wait until tonight when we turn on the lights on the outside. It's just awesome."

Billy shrugged, "We would have trouble getting that enormous tree through the door. Besides, I also utilize this place to entertain business associates on many occasions. We actually had some potential clients from Europe staying here just last week. I employed a team of professional decorators just so we could impress them. Kimberly had really stressed the importance of making an impression."

"Yeah, so how did that work out for you?" asked Jason.

"Like a dream," Zack said before Billy could. "Crimson will be expanding their operations into the European market comes next spring."

Jason smiled, "I'm happy for you, bro. Who would have thought when we were in high school that one of us would actually ended up owning something like this?"

"Thank you. Why don't we embark on a tour and you can select your own accommodation for your visit," said Billy.

Jason raised an eyebrow, "I just naturally assumed that I will be sharing a room with Zack? How big is this place anyway?"

Zack shook his head, "14,000 square feet of interior living space, my friend, and that doesn't include the guest house or the conservatory. Just this house alone has seven bedroom suites all with their own bathrooms, a spacious living room that my entire apartment would fit into, recreation room, formal dinning room, a conference area, and a kitchen to die for, equipped with granite counter tops and a gourmet Viking stove. There is a fitness room with professional gym equipment. This place is a sultan's palace. Billy has the master suite; Kim and I have our own rooms since we are here a lot. But, there are still 4 lovely rooms for you to choose from. And if you think this place is outrageous, you should see his home in L.A. Our billionaire entrepreneur has great taste in homes."

Jason shook his head, "I don't even know what a Viking stove is, but Zack, if this job with Billy doesn't work out, you can probably consider going into real estate."

Kim giggled, "Well, Zack is our advertising guy."

"It's lovely. Billy, I can't tell you how happy I am to see you are doing so well. You deserve it, man."

Billy blushed, "I got lucky. I bet Crimson came as a bit of a surprise to you, didn't it?"

Jason shrugged, "I fully expected you to be some wiz kid with NASA or the next Bill Gates. Never could I have guessed that you would end up owning one of the most successful cosmetic companies in the world." Jason said, still baffled by this unexpected development.

"To be honest, so did I. But things just didn't work out the way I thought it would. Neither NASA nor Bill Gates wanted me, so…"

"You are kidding me, right?" asked Jason, astonished.

"No, deadly serious. NASA was kind enough to offer me a scholarship and a vague promise of future opportunity, and Microsoft turned me down, never even gotten an interview. I came back from Aquitar with all these new ideas and information that would have advanced technology ten times what it is today, but I didn't have a college degree. Anyway, I decided to try something new. I guess my sudden accelerated aging helped me to understand why it was so important for people to try to maintain their youthful appearance. So, I put my chemist hat on and Kim was really helpful with her ideas, input and encouragement. I know I am smart, and I am lucky, but if it wasn't for Kim and her remarkable marketing skills, I would still be that geek playing with test tubes."

Kimberly smiled sweetly, "What can I say, I have good instinct. But you, Billy, you are the one who put it all together. You created a great line of products, I only made sure you are using Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale to distribute your products instead of Walgreens or Walmart."

"So, how do you guys like having Billy as a boss?" Jason asked. When Zack had told him that both he and Kimberly were working for Billy's company, Crimson, as advertising director and marketing director respectively, he almost fell off the chair. In his mind, Jason had always thought that Zack would end up on stage dancing somewhere and Kimberly would either be performing gymnastics, coaching gymnastics or commentating on gymnastics. Now, he stared at his three childhood friends, they all looked so poised and professional even in their weekend gears, he would bet anything that the cashmere sweater that Billy had on probably cost more than his entire wardrobe.

"Oh, we just love him. He's really generous with salaries and bonuses. Plus, I get all these discount and free samples, what more can a girl want?" laughed Kim.

Zack joined in, "you should definitely consider working for Billy, Jason. Great salary, stock options, great pension plan, and my bonus for this year was enough to get me that BMW that I had my eyes on."

"That's great, guy, but somehow I just don't think Billy needs a former Navy SEAL with no working experience working for him." Jason smiled.

Billy looked at the others before speaking, "Jase, actually I really want to talk to you about rebuilding our headquarters, and I know you finished your college degree while you were in the Navy."

"Whoa, Billy. I appreciate the offer, but I don't think I am the man for the job. Yes, I have a degree, but most of my classes during my last two years were done on-line. I have no actual working experience. I appreciate the offer, man, but I know I have to start off slowly."

"Hey, let's talk work some other time, all right?" Zack jumped in, "We are here this week to have fun. I can't wait for the others to get here so that we can trade stories. I can't wait to hear all the adventures that you were in when you were a Seal. And Trini, my God, a bodyguard, I still can't get over that. But, first, let's get Jase settle in first. Let's take that tour so Jason can pick out his room."

Jason and Zack traded smiles as Jason shrugged out of his leather jacket, "I'd love a tour, but you know me, anywhere is fine with me. Let's just wait for Trini to get here and let her pick out her room first."

Zack grinned, "Always the gentleman. That's why the ladies just love you."

Billy looked thoughtful; Jason seemed more aloof than he was back in high school, like he wasn't quite ready to jump back in with the crowd. "There's actually a private guest house right on this property if you prefer some privacy."

Zack laughed, "What privacy? We are here for a get-to-gather. That means we want to stick our mugs in each other faces. Besides, if Jase hangs out like a lone wolf how is he and…" Zack stopped when Kimberly kicked him in the shin.

Jason sighed, "It's alright, Zack. It's been a long time. Trini and I…we have come to an understanding."

Zack snickered, "right, you were all ready to spend your Christmas with your folks until I mentioned that Trini would be coming."

Jason stared at Zack, his expression serious, "I need you to promise me that you won't do anything that can potentially embarrass her."

"Who? Me? What are you on, man? I love Trini. I would never ever do anything to embarrass her."

Jason sighed impatiently, "Promise me, Zack."

Zack covered his heart with both hands, "You wounded me!" When Jason just continued to glare at him, Zack dropped his act, "Fine. I promise I will not intentionally do anything that might bring distress or embarrassment to our fair Trini. Happy?"

"It's okay, Jason. Zack knows that if he so much as say one wrong word, I will duct tape his mouth shut." Grinned Kimberly.

"Don't worry, Jason. Everything will be fine. We haven't seen each other in so long; there's so much for us to catch up on. It's going to be a wonderful week." Billy added.

Jason nodded and apologized to Zack, "I didn't mean to jump down your throat. I just don't want any awkwardness. Anyway, I really do want to see everybody again. When are Trini and Tommy getting here?"

"Tommy won't arrive until Christmas Eve. Trini called and said she'd be here around two, something about needing to go see her boss before leaving." Glancing at his watch, Billy added, "At least the atmospheric condition is favorable. You did not encounter any difficulties while traveling up here, did you, Jase?"

Jason shook his head, "had to slow to 40 after 4 thousand feet, the snowplows were out, but everything was cool. What is Trini driving? She should be okay if she has something with a 4 wheel drive."

Zack shook his head, "You know our girl; she probably has one of those hybrid thingie."

Billy shrugged, "We'll probably have snow tonight, but it should stay clear during the day. She should be okay as long as she get here before night falls."

Jason was still frowning when Zack came up and slapped him on the back, "Stop worrying, dude. It's Trini, remember the girl who volunteered to stay out in the freezing cold and helped put up snow-chains that winter when we were in Switzerland?"

Jason smiled, "yeah."

Kimberly came forward, "Zack, why don't you show Jason where he can freshen up and Billy and I will get lunch ready."

Jason's eyebrows disappeared, "Erm…you are cooking?"

Kim pouted and slapped him on the shoulder, "I should just for that, but no, you are safe. Margie came in and made us lunch earlier. We just have to go heat it up."

Again, Jason looked surprised, "Margie?"

Billy shrugged, looking slightly uncomfortable. "I have a couple who take care of the house for me. Margie cleans up and cooks the occasional meal when I'm here. Sometimes I would loan the house out to friends and she would air out the place and make sure everything is harmonious for our visitors. Her husband keeps the car running and takes care of whatever needs taking care of. They are a great couple. You will probably meet them tonight."

Jason nodded, no knowing what to say. It felt strange being here. While he still considered all of the rangers his good friends, they had drifted apart. Lives had taken them in different directions. Jason sighed and shook off his brief moment of melancholy, "Okay, let me go get clean up and we can eat."

**

Jason dug into his meal with gusto. "This is good, never really had chicken like this before."

Zack looked slightly amused, "this isn't chicken, Jase."

Jason carefully put down his fork, his expression unreadable, "then what am I eating?"

"Pheasant." Billy replied. When Jason stared at him blankly, he explained, "it's a bird."

"We are eating birds?" Jason asked, still sounding confused.

"It's not as common as chicken or turkey, but it certainly isn't…alligator meat." Shrugged Kim.

"Right," Jason pushed his plate aside, and then reached for the baked potato.

**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

At 2:15 Trini Kwan's little Prius cruised quietly onto the driveway. She left her car parked behind Jason's Highlander and stepped out, reaching into the back seat for her duffel bag. She took a look around and smiled. Billy certainly had done wonders for himself. She walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell.

The door opened wide and Kim was the first to come out, "TRINI!" and the petite brunette jumped at Trini much like she did with Jason. Trini staggered back a step but managed to stay upright. She laughed and hugged her friend, "It's good to see you too, Kim."

Zack rushed forward and pried Kim off of Trini, he grabbed Trini and spun her around in a circle, "Hey, stranger."

Trini smiled, "Zack, I missed you."

"I hope you missed me as well," said Billy as he too came up and hugged Trini.

Trini returned his hug, "I have missed everybody." She pulled away and her gaze landed on Jason, who was leaning against the door just watching her. "Jason." She took a step and then stopped, not knowing if he would welcome a hug from her. But it was Jason who stepped forward, one long arm reached out and grabbed hers, pulling her into a tight embrace. And just like that, she was seventeen again; her arms automatically circled his waist and her head rested on his shoulder. It was familiar, and it was comfortable. He felt safe, solid, and he smelled just like Jason.

Jason closed his eyes and tightened his hold on her. It has been five years since he had seen her and even longer since he was able to hold her. She still feel the same, she still looked the same. All of a sudden, his world was filled with colors again.

Kim, Billy, and Zack all grinned and looked at each other. Billy shrugged and went back inside. Kim giggled and followed him. Zack, used to his role as the unwanted third during their time in Switzerland, was not as accommodating. He coughed loudly and then grinned as Trini stepped away from Jason, her face bright red.

Zack grinned, "just like old times."

Jason glared at Zack but didn't say anything; instead he grabbed Trini's duffel and guided her inside. Once inside, Trini had the same reaction as Jason as she complimented Billy on the decorations and telling him how lovely the whole place was. After settling down and choosing a room that was at the end of the hall, Trini came back down to join the others who were gathered around the fireplace, chatting aimlessly.

"So, Tommy is getting engaged again, huh? What is this, the fifth time?" Kimberly asked as she took a long sip of her Strawberry Daiquiri. While none of them were serious drinkers, Kim enjoyed the occasional cocktail.

"Fourth, I believe," Billy said, leaning back in his lounger as he gave Kim a long questioning look, "Does it bother you?"

Kimberly shrugged, "Not anymore. Especially since he never seems to be able to actually make it to the altar. I guess even Tommy knows that he would make a lousy husband."

"Kim…" Trini said softly.

"I'm not being the bitter ex. I've gotten over that during his first engagement. Remember Tommy's first fiancé?"

"Yeah, that was when Tommy was a race car driver and dated nothing but models. She was pretty well known, wasn't she? Tiffany or Epiphany or something." Jason sat, resettling down after poking around in the fireplace a bit.

"Think so. I still remember I was so disgusted I hopped on a plane and flew to Maryland to see Trini. She was the best. You know Trini doesn't normally trash-talk anybody, but she knew I needed to hear it that night."

_~Flashback~_

September 29, 2000

"A lingerie model? That's like a twin of porn. Yuck!"

"A Victoria Secret lingerie model, Trini!" Kimberly snapped back, tossing the Victoria Secret catalogue at Trini, who caught it on reflex. "She's a supermodel!"

Trini looked at the photos of a beautiful, leggy brunette wearing skimpy underwears while lounging in various suggestive poses, "She's not that pretty, she..erm…looks like a skank."

"No, she doesn't. She's hot!"

"She…she has a big head! She's totally out of proportion."

"That's only because they teased her hair to give her that sex kitten look."

"She's…she's fat! See, cellulite!" Trini threw it out there, stabbing at the picture and pointing at non-existing cellulites. She was getting desperate. It was hard to rag on perfection, and the girl in the photos was as perfect as any human can get.

"She doesn't have cellulite!" Kimberly said loudly, pointing to a picture where Tiffany or Epiphany had her back to the camera. The only piece of clothing she had on was a pair of lacy white thong with a big red bow.

"Air brushed!" Trini said quickly, "Plus she's fat. She must be at least…a hundred twenty." And probably five foot eleven, Trini added silently.

"She isn't fat. She has a great figure, nice breasts and a nice ass." Giving her best friend the once over, Kim added skeptically, "when are you going to grow an ass?"

"Hey!" Trini yelled indignantly, "this is the last time I'm going to try to make you feel better."

Kimberly sighed, "Don't worry, Trini. Sure, I need to bitch but I'm over it. Tommy and I broke up for years. Besides, I was the one who dumped him. It's just that it's a shock to hear that he has gotten engaged. I thought I would beat him to it. You know, find me that millionaire who can double as a Calvin Klein underwear model? Never thought he ended up with the underwear model while I'm still single. It's not fair, just look at her, I never thought he would find someone better than me!" Kimberly whined.

Trini put down the catalogue and sat down in front of Kim with a serious look on her face, "She isn't better than you, Kim. She just looks pretty in pictures. It is how she gets paid after all. It's her job to look pretty, and PhotoShop helps. But I bet she doesn't have your strength or your loving nature. Kimberly, you were a power ranger. You helped to save the world time and time again. If that wasn't enough, you are also a gymnastic champion. You have the medals and memories of all that you have accomplished. She just smiles pretty and prances around in her underwear. How does that make her better?"

Kimberly laughed and hugged her friend, "I love you so much, Trini."

Trini hugged her back for a minute before gently pulling away, "Besides, look at the crap that she has to wear. Who the heck wear a bow on her butt? We can browse through the catalogue and laugh at her for hours."

Kimberly picked up the catalogue and looked at the pictures, "It's actually kind of cute. Hey, I like this one with the feather…"

Trini rolled her eyes and jumped off the couch and headed into the kitchen, "I got us something that should make you feel even better."

Kimberly heard the fridge door opened and then closed. Trini came out with two single pint size containers and 2 spoons. She flashed her prize at Kim with a grin, "Strawberry cheesecake for you and Chunky Monkey for me. See, this is our reward while she has to be on a diet 24/7."

Kimberly took the container and pulled open the lid. Looking as Trini dug her spoon into her Chunky Monkey, Kimberly glanced at the magazine again and couldn't resist adding, "She really doesn't have a good bone structure. She will look thirty by the time she is twenty-five."

_~End Flashback~_

Zack's expression went from merriment to serious as Kimberly story comes to an end, "this is what I missed most since high school, our friendship. I am sure we have all made friends since then, but no one, and I mean no one ever made me feel as close and as connected as you guys."

They all nodded in agreement.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Kimberly was just slipping in between her wonderful, warm down comforter when there was a sharp knock on her door, the intruder did not give her a chance to issue an invitation before slipping through the door. Kim sat up, "What?"

"Meeting at the guesthouse, you, me and Billy, right now."

Kimberly pouted, "But I was just about to go to bed. Can't we do this tomorrow?"

"It's important, Kimmy. Operation Get-Our-Friends-Back-Together, remember, the point of this whole elaborate little get together? I've just checked, both of our victims—I mean targets—shit, that's not right either…humm…okay Jason and Trini are both asleep. This is the only time we can have a secret meeting without letting them know that we are having a secret meeting. So, hustle that cute behind, girl, let's move it."

Kim sighed dramatically, "They better name their first kid after me!"

**

Kim wrapped the blanket tighter around her shoulder, "It's freezing in here." She looked around, "Oh great, there's no wood for the fire place."

"No worries, the only wood-burning fireplace we have in this house is the one in the living room in the main house. All others operate on gas," said Billy, turning on the fireplace.

"Thank God!" Kim sighed in contentment as the place warmed up immediately. She dropped the blanket and picked up the bottle of Cognac that Zack had unearthed. She poured a small amount for everyone and handed out the glasses. She took a sip of hers and smiled, "I feel so much warmer now. I thought I was turning into a popsicle there for a moment." She took another sip and then poured herself another shot.

Billy smiled at her indulgently, "It's pretty potent stuff, so take it easy, okay. We don't want to have to explain to Trini why we have to carry you back to your room."

Kim giggled, "It won't be the first time would it? Remember how pissed off Trini was the last time you two got me drunk?"

Zack closed his eyes briefly, "Oh yeah, for a moment there, I really thought she was going to kill us. I think it was the first time I actually heard her swore."

Billy shrugged, "You can't really blame her, Kim was only seventeen at the time. Trini probably thought we poisoned her best friend."

Kim sighed, "Yeah, and her remedy was to drown me with coffee. I still think the reason I puked so much that weekend was due more to that horrible coffee than the beer."

Zack sat back and relaxed, sipping his drink, "You know, the funny thing is we were doing exactly the same thing that night as we are doing now, trying to get our two mule-headed best friends together."

~ flashback ~

Trini frowned as she walked beside Kimberly, "so you are telling me you and Tommy broke up because of shoes?"

Kimberly stopped mid-stride and glared at her insensitive best friend, "They are Manolo Blahnik! You remember, right, my really, really cute pink suede T- Strap sling back with the 4 inch heel and rhinestone buckle? I had to beg my mom for them for my birthday. I made my mom so many promises I couldn't even remember what I promised her. And Tommy had to throw them at the putties, it's not like he doesn't carry enough crap in his own backpack."

Trini felt really bad. Kimberly looked as though she was about to cry. "Maybe we can get them back for you some how."

"How? One of them just disappeared with my shoes, probably given them to Rita Repulsa by now, and the old witch is probably is probably playing Cinderella trying to get her big, smelly feet into them right now. My pretty little shoes are ruined."

"Maybe we can just replace them; I'll talk to the guys and we can all cheap in and buy you a new pair."

Again, Kim glared at her friend, "They cost $795."

Trini's eyes just doubled in size, "for a pair of shoes?"

Kim stomped her foot, "They are Manolo Blahnik! Mom got a friend that gave them to her at cost, and they still cost her $400."

"Wow…erm…wow!"

"So do you understand why I was so upset with Tommy?"

Trini nodded her head, knowing how important fashion was to Kim. "So, you and Tommy are like…over? Really?"

Kimberly's brow furrowed, "Well, Tommy doesn't think so, but yeah, we are."

Trini didn't really know what to say. Even though logically she knew it was none of her business and certainly none of it was her fault, but because they were both her friends, she still felt torn. Sighing quietly, the Asian beauty decided that she wasn't going to worry over something that she has no control over. It was difficult enough being a teenager and a superhero, she didn't need to stress over Kimberly's love life.

As the two teens stepped into Ernie's Juice Bar, they both glanced quickly to the side where Jason and Tommy were teaching a self-defense class to a bunch of moms. The two girls waved at their friends and received a grim look from Tommy and a smile from Jason. They continued to walk over to where Billy and Zack were sitting, sipping smoothies as they watched the self-defense class. Kimberly went right over to Billy and sat down next to him, asking for his help with her Science homework. Trini also pulled out her notebook and started to do her Math homework, but she couldn't concentrate and eventually she shifted her attention to the class and watched as Jason showed the class how to break a simple hold. Trini smiled, Jason was always so serious and dedicated when it comes to martial arts. Trini has always admired Jason, for while he could party with the best of them and was one of the biggest goofballs with his friends, he took his ranger duties seriously and was always thoughtful and kind. He was a great leader and always watched out for the rest of them. He was the first to jump into a fight and first to jump in when his friends need help. Right now, he was in the same boat as Trini, not sure how to act when Tommy and Kimberly were in the same room. While he could see clearly that Kimberly was the one who dumped Tommy, he couldn't take side because it wasn't his relationship and he didn't know everything. Tommy never did go into details, just that Kimberly had thrown a hissy fit because of some shoes, which seemed rather ridiculous to Jason. Zack, being Zack and a different girlfriend every week, didn't see anything wrong to the whole Tommy/Kimberly thing, but Jason knew Trini was having just as hard a time with the whole thing as he was. He looked over at Trini and she acknowledged him with a sweet smile. Jason just stared at her for a moment until one of the moms took advantage of his inattention and tried to knee him in the groin. Jason jumped back hastily and stared at the blonde forty something in shock. The mom chuckled at him, "don't worry, I wouldn't have really hurt you, cutie. Just want you to focus on us now and worry about your pretty little girlfriend later, alright?"

Jason blushed and Tommy grimaced, "Ok, let's try something new. Instead of breaking off a hand grab, let's say some guy come up to you from behind, er…maybe we should get some help…" His eyes landed on Kimberly then switched quickly to her dark haired companion, "Trini."

Trini pointed to herself when Tommy called out her named. Tommy nodded and beckoned her over. Trini reluctantly hopped down from her seat and walked over to the class.

"Trini can help us demonstrate. She can be the victim.." at which Trini glared at him and Tommy shrugged, pointing to a spot in front of Jason, "you know what I meant. You will be the attackee," at which Trini muttered, "that's not even a word." "Trini, please." At which Trini gave Tommy a sullen glare before moving to stand in front of Jason. "Ok, Jason here is the attacker. He will sneak up on Trini from behind and grab hold of her and try to pull her back with him.. Jase."

Jason looked slightly helpless, "we haven't really worked this out with Trini yet."

"So, Trini knows what to do." Dismissed Tommy easily.

"Erm…" Jason took a deep breath and walked up behind Trini. He stopped a foot behind her and reached out to grab her arms.

"No, no, no, Jason. What's wrong with you, bro. That's not going to work. Come closer and really grab her, grab her."

Trini smiled at the dozen or so moms, "as you can see, Jason has never been an attacker."

Everyone laughed and Jason seemed to relax a little. This time he came up behind Trini and put his right arm across her shoulder and his left around her waist. Trini responded by bringing her right knee up before stomping her heel down on Jason's foot. At the same time she brought her right arm forward before slamming her elbow back into Jason. Simultaneously, she twist her neck to the side, breaking Jason's hold on her and dropped quickly to her knees, her left hand pulled at the knees of his jeans, yanking him to the ground.

Jason landed on the mat and stared up Trini who was smiling at him before reaching over and offering him her hand to help him up. The class clapped and smiled.

"That was awesome, Trini," said Tommy. "Wasn't what I had in mind, but I think your technique actually works better. Let's go over this one more time, slower this time."

Jason looked at Trini nervously as she turned her head to look back at him. She smiled and nodded her head, letting him know that she was ready.

Jason blew out a long breath and walked up to Trini. He mimicked his last move and grabbed her across her shoulder. "Tighter, Jason, make it look like a real attack." Tommy instructed.

Still, Jason hesitated and Trini said quietly, "It's okay, Jase, I trust you. I know you would never hurt me."

Jason groaned silently, then tightened his hold on Trini, bringing her back against him, her back to his front. But just as quickly, he let go of her and leaped back. "What the fu…er…what's wrong, Jason?" Tommy amended quickly, dodging the disapproval looks from several of the moms.

Jason's eyes grew huge and to Trini's and everyone else's astonishment, he blushed. Jason Lee Scott, the leader of the power ranger, was turning as red as a tomato. Thinking quickly, he faked a sneeze, "sorry, didn't want to sneeze all over you." He explained. "Excuse me for a sec, gotta…go wash my hands," and the boy practically ran off.

Tommy looked at Trini, "that was weird. What just happened?"

Trini shrugged, but a few of the moms laughed and nudged each other. Trini's frowned deepened, "What it is? Is Jason okay?"

The moms laughed again as one of them said, "he's fine. Just fine. Absolutely nothing wrong with the boy, nothing at all."

Back at the table, the other three rangers watched as Jason stomped past them without a word. "Jas.." Kim frowned, "what's wrong with him?"

Zack smirked, "Our boy needs to be alone for a minute or maybe get Trini into the bathroom with him, that would fix his problem too."

"Huh?"

"Come on, Kimmy, don't tell me you didn't see that boner." Kimberly's mouth dropped open in surprise and Zack winked, "Yup, our fearless leader popped a boner for our beautiful Asian lassie."

Five minutes, ten minutes, and then fifteen and Jason still hadn't returned. Trini had graciously taken over the class and was showing the class a few relatively simple tricks that the ladies could use if they were ever confronted by an attacker. Finally Tommy dismissed the class and apologized on Jason's behalf. The moms were all good-natured enough not to mind. In fact, most of them were giggling, thanking Trini for her time and smiling outrageously at the girl.

Trini frowned as she helped Tommy to clean up the area and stored away the few pieces of equipments that they had used. She and Tommy exchanged a few pleasantries and then she headed back to her friends. She sat down and took a long sip from her drink before she noticed everyone was staring at her. Zack was smirking and Kimberly was beaming and Billy, was he snickering at her?

"What's going on, guys? Why are you guys looking at me like that?"

Kimberly grinned, "So tell me, Trini, what did you do to poor Jason?"

Trini frowned, but before she could question Kim, Billy spoke up, "Or are you just doing him?"

Before Trini could form a protest, Billy squealed as he found himself picked up along with the chair he was sitting on and turned around to face the angry red ranger. "Apologize to her, right now!"

"Ok, ok, don't blow a gasket, man. I'm sorry, Trini. That was insensitive of us." Billy said.

Trini glanced at each of them carefully, and then muttered in low voice, "Why would you say something so stupid?"

Zack shrugged, "we didn't mean any disrespect, Trini." He glanced at Jason and shrugged again, "but it was obvious to anyone with eyes that Jason didn't sneeze and had to run off to the bathroom to wash his hands. And even though a couple of the moms were indeed MILF, I doubt it was anyone of them who put that wood in his pants."

Trini looked to Jason hoping for answer. Instead all she got was Jason staring at her with big, round, guilty looking eyes. He swallowed and once again turned into the shade of a ripe tomato. Still, Trini tilted her head to one side, watching the change of color in Jason's face curiously. Then, it was like she finally made the quantum leap and her eyes grew huge and her face turned into a matching shade of Jason's. Hurriedly, she gathered all her stuff, "I gotta go. Mom's waiting for me." Without another word and not looking at anyone, she dashed out of the juice bar.

Jason sighed tiredly and dropped into the seat that Trini had just vacated. "Not one word from any one of you."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Trini rushed inside her home and slammed the door behind her, "Mom, I'm home." She called and then rushed upstairs to her room without waiting for an answer, figuring her mother was probably in the kitchen making dinner.

Once inside the sanctuary of her room, she slipped her backpack off her shoulder and tossed it on the floor. She ran her hand back, pushing her bangs off her forehead. She shrugged out of her denim jacket and tossed it on the bed angrily_.~ Stupid Jason with his stupid teenage-guy-thing. Stupid Jason ruining a life long friendship with his stupid guy problem~._ Trini covered her face with both hands, still feeling the warmth left over from earlier embarrassment. How was she going to face her friends? How was she going to face Jason? Oh God, how was she going to face those moms? Some of them knew her mother. _~Stupid Jason! ~_

The phone rang just as Trini was cussing out Jason for the twentieth time. Trini jumped at the interruption and sighed before picking up the phone, "Hello?"

"Trini?"

"Mom?" Trini frowned.

"Yeah, honey, did you see the note I left at the frig?"

"Erh, no."

"Oh, okay, your dad and I have to attend a medical conference in Boston. We are at the airport right now; our plane is leaving in another 45 minutes. I just want to make sure you are okay."

"You guys are at the airport?"

"I'm sorry, honey. I would have told you and arranged for your aunt to come and stay with you if I had any advance notice, but we were just told about it earlier today and your dad wants to take this opportunity to visit some of his friends, which is why we are leaving today instead of Sunday, so that he can spend the weekend catching up with his college friends before the conference on Monday. Honey, I'm really sorry, but you will okay. You are old enough and sensible enough that I don't have to worry about you. Your dad and I will be back on Wednesday night. I've left some money in the kitchen. We are staying at Hyatt. Make sure you lock all the doors and set the alarm. I will call you tonight once we settle in, alright?"

"Alright, Mom. You and dad have fun." Trini sighed silently. Normally she wouldn't have minded being alone in the house, but tonight she had desperately needed some form of distraction. She didn't want to think about stupid Jason and his…problem. " Mom, will it be okay if I invite Kimberly over to stay for the weekend?"

"Of course, honey, as long as it is okay with her mom. I will actually feel better if I know someone else is staying with you."

"Thanks, Mom. I will see you guys next week."

Trini ended the call with her mom and then dialed Kim's number. It rang for a long time and Trini was just about to hang up before she heard Kim voice, "hello?"

Kim sounded out of breath and Trini hoped she didn't interrupt anything icky, "Erm…Kim?"

"Trini, hey, what's up?"

"Are you busy?"

"Well, not right now. I just got in, why?"

Trini smiled in relief, "Well, my folks are out of town and won't be back until Wednesday. I was wondering if you want to hang out with me tonight, maybe stay over for the night?"

Kimberly was silent for so long that Trini thought she was thinking of a polite excuse, "Sure, okay if I come over in about an hour?"

Trini grinned, "Perfect. Want me to order a pizza?"

"Sure, I will see you soon."

Trini had just paid for the pizza when Kim walked up the driveway. She was dressed from head to toe in pink, a pale pink tank top, short pink skirt, a pair of pink sandals with a 3-inch heel and a hot pink leather jacket. She was carrying a huge pink purse over her shoulder. Trini eyed her outfit and sighed, that was so not a stay-in-on-a-Friday night- and watch-chick-flick sort of outfit. That was a I've-a-hot-date or I-wanna-go-party sort of outfit.

Kimberly walked through the door and smiled, "I hope you didn't order anchovies."

Trini shook her head, "Just pepperoni."

"Good."

"Kim…I thought we could just stay in, watch TV and pig out on pizza and Ben and Jerry tonight, okay?"

"Well…we can certainly do that, but I have a date with Tommy later."

"You and Tommy made up?"

"Yeah, I was really mad, but you were right, they were just shoes. Besides, Tommy promised me that he would replace them. His cousin works for some fashion magazine, so she has connections."

"Oh, so, um…you won't be staying over then?" asked a disappointed Trini.

"Well…here's the thing, Trini. You know I can't very well sneak Tommy home with me, and since your parents are out of town…"

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

"Come on, Trini,"

"No! Look, Kim, if you want to go meet Tommy, I won't even try to stop you. But he can't come over."

"Why not?" asked Kim with her hands on her waist. "Tommy comes over all the time."

"It's different when he comes over to hang out or do homework with us, but I can't let you guys use this place for…well…you know."

"Sex? Come on, Trini, you are old enough to say it. Shit, you are old enough to do it. Bet you wonder about it too, haven't you? Especially after that…interesting display by Jason this afternoon?"

Trini glared at her best friend, "Don't even go there."

Kim giggled, "It was pretty impressive. I bet it would be even more so without the pants."

"Shut up, Kim," muttered a red faced Trini.

Kimberly held up both hands in a manner of surrender, "Okay, no more talk about Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome. Come on, Trini,, we just want to borrow a bed, I swear, we won't even make THAT much noise."

Trini just shook head from side to side, "I would love to help you out, Kim, but I can't, so just don't ask."

Kimberly stomped her foot in annoyance. "Fine, but this means I can't stay. "

"Fine, whatever, let's just have some pizza, okay?"

Kim's phone rang at ten; she smirked at Trini and answered her phone. She hung up after a brief conversation, "Gotta go, he's waiting outside, but I will be back in the morning."

Trini nodded listlessly as she watched her friend walked out the front door. Trini sighed and picked up the pizza box and the empty coke cans. She put the trash in the kitchen before heading upstairs and got into the shower. _~ Sleepover sucks!~_

**

"No, Zack, you can not consume alcohol on this premises. If my dad ever discovers this transgression, you invitation to visit will be revoked. He probably won't even let us be friends anymore." Billy said, trying to grab the beer bottle away from Zack.

Unfortunately, Zack was way more co-ordinate and nimble, and just danced away from the blonde genius. "It's only beer, and I only sneaked out 2 bottles. Nothing bad will happen."

"Bad things always happen just when you say they won't happen."

"Huh?"

Billy took a deep breath and was thinking of a way to explain it to Zack when Kimberly tapped softly on the window.

"Kimmy!" Zack jumped up excitedly and Billy hushed him quickly, "You are going to wake up my Dad! Kim, what are doing here?"

Zack opened the window and helped Kimberly to climb in.

"Tommy and I had another fight. Can't go home cause my mom thinks I'm at Trini's. Want to see what kind of trouble you two are cooking up." Kim said and started to explain how Trini ended up being home alone.

Billy settled down onto the bed and moved into a more comfortable position, "So Trini's folks just leave her at home all by herself?"

"Well, you know Trini, she's the responsible one. It's not like they have to worry about her having an orgy or turning it into a keg house."

"True, but what about burglars and intruders. I mean if I have a sixteen year old daughter, I would worry leaving her at home all by herself." Added Zack.

Suddenly Kimberly's eyes gleamed with mischief, "Yeah, you are right, we should probably have someone check up on her."

"What are you doing, Kim?"

Kim shook her head at Billy as she pulled her phone out of her purse and hit speed dial number 4. The phone was finally answer after the sixth ring, "Jase?"

"Who is this?"

"Jase, is Kimmy." Kimberly adopted her little girl's voice.

"It's one thirty, Kim. What do you want?" asked Jason impatiently.

"Jase, I'm worry about Trini. Her parents are in Boston. She's at home all by herself. I tried to call her just to you know, check on her, but she isn't answering."

"Kim, it's one thirty. She's probably asleep, like most normal people are."

"Maybe, but Jason, I have this really bad feeling."

"Kim…"

"Can't you just pop over and check on her?"

"What?"

"I want you to teleport over, if she really is asleep, than you can leave and I won't have to spend the rest of the night worrying about her being dead."

Jason raised his voice, "Trini is not dead!"

"Probably not, but what if she's in trouble, maybe she fell in the shower or something. Jason, just go check it out."

"Why…why can't you go?"

"Jason Lee Scott, you act like the leader that you are supposed to be and teleport your ass over there now!"

Jason took a deep breath, "Okay, I'll go over and make sure she is okay, but why do I have to teleport? I don't want her to think I just appear uninvited."

Kimberly might not be book-smart, but she was the Queen of Schemes, "You don't want to set off the alarm just in case."

Jason hung up and sighed. He pulled out a random red T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Just in case there was a burglar, he didn't want to get caught in his boxers. He didn't really think Trini was in trouble, but there was no harm in making sure. He would just pop over, see for himself that she was okay and report back to Kim.

Jason materialized in the Kwan's living room. The house was quiet and the lights were all off. Everything looked fine, and Trini was probably asleep, but…there was no harm in just taking a peek in on Trini.

Silently, Jason crept up the stairs. He stood outside of her bedroom for a full ten seconds before pushing the door open. His gaze traveled toward her bed and Trini appeared to be asleep with the bed covers pulled over her head. Jason smiled, and then just as quickly his smile disappeared. Trini did not sleep with the covers over her head. She was a firm believer in allowing for airflow and such crap. On closer inspection, no way in hell was the lump in the bed Trirni. Quickly, Jason stalked toward her bed preparing to yank the covers back.

He was half way across the room when something hard came down on his back, knocking him to the ground. Jason didn't think; he just acted on instinct, his feet swept back, knocking his attacker onto the floor even as he fell. Just as quickly he rolled over, pinning his assailant to the ground. His attacker, however, put up an impressive struggle. It took Jason just two seconds to realize he was fighting with a girl, "Trini?"

The struggling stopped, "Jason?"

"Yeah, it's me." Jason said, laughing softly. The laughter quickly died as Trini brought up her knee and slammed it into his groin. "Shit! Tri! What the hell?"

Trini pushed him off her and quickly rolled to her feet, "That's for coming in here unannounced in the middle of night and scaring the crap out of me! What are you doing here anyway?"

Jason took a deep breath and groaned, "Damn it, Trini. I do still want to have children one day you know."

Trini flicked the light switch on the wall and flooded the room with artificial light, "What are doing here, Jason?"

Jason managed to sit up, still groaning in pain, "Kim called and said you weren't answering your phone. She was worried about you because she knew you were home alone. She asked me to come and make sure you weren't murdered in your sleep or something. What's with that lump in the bed?"

"I heard you. I saw a flash of light, and when I realized it wasn't Kim, I thought it was a burglar, so I…er…planned my attack."

Jason nodded, "I'm sorry I scared you. What did you hit me with anyway?"

Trini grinned apologetically, "The chair." Just as quickly, her smile disappeared, "Wait, Kim sent you here? That little sneak!"

"I don't understand." Jason stared at her and kept on staring. She was standing in front of him in a yellow tank top and a pair of long black and yellow-checkered pajama pants, her long shiny black hair flow down her back like rich silk.

"Kim knew I was perfectly okay. She never called me. She just used it as an excuse to get you here."

"Oh, I'm sorry that I let her suckered me."

"Not your fault. I'm sorry I hit you with a chair and then…erm…"

"Try to prevent me from ever having children?"

Trini laughed, "Sorry, can I get you anything? Ice?"

Jason continued to stare.

On one side, the good, honorable Jason slapped him in the head, "She's your friend, get your mind out of the gutter, don't you dare take advantage of her."

On the flip side, little evil Jason was enjoying the view too much. The little tank top left little to the imagination. "Don't be an idiot, look at her, she's hot. You may never get another shot like this. This is your reward for always being a good boy. Take it."

"What's the matter, Jase?" Trini asked tentatively, her face full of remorse. "God, I didn't really hurt you, did I?"

Staring at the almost perfect innocent face in front of him, good little Jason finally took over, kicking the little evil Jason out the window. "No, I'm fine. I should be going since you are fine too."

Jason struggled to get up and Trini hesitated briefly, "Do you want to stay for a little while? Want to come on down to the kitchen, we can have pie and ice cream. I've got Cherry Garcia."

**

Kimberly finished the bottle and turned it upside down, making sure that she did not miss one, single drop. She dropped the empty bottle onto the carpet and pouted, "I want more beer."

"We don't have any more beer. I only had two, one for me, and one for my man, Billy. But you, little pink ranger, already hijacked a whole one all to yourself."

Kimberly frowned and turned her gamine face to Billy, "Billy, I want more beer."

Billy laughed uncomfortably, "I don't think so, Kim. Besides, my dad would know if I pilfer even one bottle out of the frig."

Kimberly's eyes grew stormy as she slapped her hand down hard on the carpeted floor, "I want more beer!"

"Kim, stop before you wake my dad." Begged Billy.

"You want me to stop? Then get me more beer."

"Kim, you really need to leave. If my dad finds you here or us drinking…"

"I don't want to leave. I want more beer."

Zack sat up, "Let me go see what I can find."

"Are you crazy?"

"We need to keep her quiet. Kim isn't a drinker. She'll pass out if she gets another drink, and then we can quietly sneak her back into Trini's after she passes out."

"Are you out of your mind?" Billy managed not to yell, "You want to get her drunk. She's 17. It's a felony."

"You just said it, Billy. We are only teenagers; we are allowed to do stupid things. No one is going to hang us just because we had a couple of beers." Zack said, then quietly slipped out the door.

"Oh God, I'm so going to Hell."

**

Trini cut up 2 slices of pie and then added a generous serving of Cherry Garcia to each before setting one plate in front of Jason and taking the other plate and sitting down across from Jason.

"I really am sorry about earlier."

Jason shook his head, "I'm the one who should be sorry for scaring you."

The two smiled at each other and then dug into their pies. Except for occasionally sneaking peeks at each other, they didn't say a word and just concentrate on eating pies. Finally after the pies were gone and Jason put his fork down, he stared at Trini for a long while before saying quietly, "What's happening with us, Trini?"

Trini gulped, then stared at him, wide-eyed, "I don't know."

Without conscious thought, Jason reached across the table and grabbed Trini's hand, running his thumb over and over again on the back of Trini's hand. "I want us to always be friends."

"We are friends."

"Remember when we first met?"

"Yeah, my first day in Angel Grove Elementary. To think I might have been expelled on my first day if it wasn't because of you."

"Yeah," Jason smiled, remembering fondly of a pig-tailed Trini coming into the locker room filled with half-dressed boys. "I think I liked you even back then. You smiled at me, and it's like everything changed in that instant."

"You were my hero. You really came through for me that day."

Jason continued to run his thumb over her hand, "I didn't understand why I had this uncontrollable urge to insist on being your friend, but I just did."

Trini finally found her voice, "It worked out okay. I mean the friendship that we created, you, me, Kimmy, Zack and Billy, we saw each other through a lot."

"Yeah, I could never regret those moments." Jason sighed, "Then you grew up and kept on getting prettier and prettier everyday and I…"

"But you never did anything about it," said Trini, her tone almost accusatory.

"I almost did."

"When?"

"Eighth grade, you were 13. Remember we all came to watch you take your first black-belt test?"

Trini nodded, smiling at the memory.

"You did so well. I was totally amazed, and all I wanted to do was to hug you and tell you how amazing you were. I think I made up my mind then that you were going to be my girlfriend."

"You did?"

"Yeah," Jason grinned. "I waited for you, you know, wanting to walk you home, but you came out with Kimberly and she was telling you all about this date that she was planning on going and you told her that your mom would not let you date until you were 16."

"That's right," said Trini, then comprehension dawned in her brown eyes.

"Yeah, that's right. I figured I had to wait another three years, but you were worth the wait."

Trini bit down on her lower lip, "But Jase, I…I turned 16 five months ago."

Jason finally let go of her hand, and Trini felt an uncontrollable chill. Jason stood up and walked to the other side of the kitchen, leaning against the sink, "Do you remember what happened right before you turned 16?"

Trini shook her head, looking confused.

"A life changing event, Trini," prompted Jason.

Understanding came swiftly, "We became Power Rangers."

"That's right, and I got another door slammed in my face."

"Why?" Trini demanded.

"They call it 'fraternizing' in the military. I never really understood that until it stared at me in the face." Jason stared at her, noting the slight sheen of brightness in her eyes. "It was bad enough that you were all my friends, and that we all worry about each other. But what happens when I can't lead the team because I let emotion guide me? What happens when I refuse to let one of the team members go into battle because I was worried about her? What happens to the team then? When Zordon asked us to become Power Rangers, I thought it came with enormous responsibilities and of course I knew it was going to wreck havoc with our lives, but I was so honored, to have this opportunity, to be bestowed this great gift…I didn't really think far enough ahead. I didn't think that I would lose you in the process."

"You didn't lose me," said Trini quietly. "And even had you known, you wouldn't have changed your answer because you are Jason. The world needed you."

"Trini..I…"

Now it was Trini who grabbed his hand, "Our timing sucks, Jason. But I'm glad you are telling me. I…I want things to be different between us, but now is not the time. I'm not sure when will be the time, but I'm willing to wait." Just as quickly, she dropped his hand, her face reddening. "I mean, that is…that is if you still want to…"

Jason smiled, "Some day, Trini. Hopefully some day in the near future."

_End flashback_

"That last attempt was unsuccessful, why would we flair any better this time?" asked Billy.

Zack shrugged, "things are different now. The only problem they ever had was their age. Trini was right; they were too young. They needed that time apart to grown up and to see the world. Now, they are coming back together again, and there is nothing really that is standing in their way this time. They are both afraid to reach out. All they really need is the opportunity. They just have to work through some personal issues, learn how to trust each other again."

"And we are here to help push them toward that goal," grinned Kim as she clinked glasses with her conspirators.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Trini bounced down the stairs and headed toward the kitchen. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was wearing a navy turtleneck sweater and a pair of loose, insulated black pants with her ski gloves clipped through the belt loop, obviously dressed for a day out on the slope. She came into the kitchen just as Jason was pouring himself a cup of coffee. "Good morning."

"Morning, did you make coffee for everyone?" Trini asked, eyeing the coffee pot hopefully.

"And if I didn't, you would just steal my cup anyway," Jason smiled at her fondly. He filled another mug and handed it her.

Trini took the mug with a grateful smile, "I did, didn't I? Always stealing your coffee when we were in Switzerland." Her eyes had that faraway look, "you shouldn't have let me get away with it."

Jason said softly, "as Zack said, I was love's bitch."

Trini knew that eventually they would need to talk about their breakup, but she wasn't ready. She cleared her throat, "is anyone else up?"

Jason shook his head as he sipped his coffee, "too early. Besides, I think they are probably sleeping off their hangovers."

Trini almost spitted out her coffee, "What hangovers? They were perfectly sober when we went to bed."

"I heard them coming back into the house around 4 in the morning," shrugged Jason as he looked into the refrigerator, "want some breakfast?"

Trini shook her head, "I really want to go snowboarding. What makes you think they were hung over?"

"They were laughing a little too loud," closing the frig and reaching for the loaf of bread and toaster, "at least let me make you some toasts. We have time. It's not even seven. I thought we could go to Heavenly. It's only a 15 minute drive, and I'm pretty sure they don't start running the chairlifts until 8:30 or 9:00."

Trini hopped onto the counter, "Okay, we'll have toast or whatever, but tell me what happened last night."

Jason shrugged as he placed the bread inside the toaster and pushed down the lever, "I'm a pretty light sleeper, I heard them, Zack, Kim and Billy leaving the house at around 1 and I followed them to see what they were up to. I knew they weren't going far since they were still in their pajamas. I saw them ran into the guesthouse, the whole time Kimberly was screaming cold, cold, cold. I figured since you and I were not invited, it was probably about us. So, I went back to bed. They woke me up again when they came back in, I could hear them laughing, slurring and bumping into things. Zack said something about hoping Kim doesn't puke, so I figured they were drunk. I actually thought they were stomping around like a herd of elephants; I'm surprised you didn't wake up."

Trini blushed, "my room is at the other end of the hall, away from everybody. Besides, I swear you are like that bionic guy with a chip inside your ear."

"I think it was the girl with the amplified hearing. The guy had the eye thing."

"Okay, whatever," Trini laughed, and then her expression turned serious. "You knew they were talking about us? And you just went back to bed? That is so…not normal. You weren't…maybe…tempted to grab a glass and go listen?"

Jason smiled, "I was Navy SEAL, not CIA. Besides, those three are so easy; I don't need to listen to know what they are saying. I will bet you anything that they were throwing around half-baked plans to see what they can do to get us back together."

Trini thought about it carefully and then laughed, "no, I don't take losing bets." She looked at Jason carefully, "you are not upset?"

"Why should I be? They think they are helping. Their intentions are good."

"But?"

"But this is about us. They can scheme all they want, but only we can decide on what we want."

Ignoring the toasts that just popped up, "do we know what we want?"

"Before I answer that, I need you to tell me this, are you married? Planning on getting married? Engaged? Planning on getting engaged? Have a boyfriend or shit, girlfriend waiting faithfully for you back in San Francisco?"

Trini shook her head slowly from side to side. "Nope, no husband or soon-to-be-husband, no fiancé or soon-to-be-fiancé, no boyfriend or girlfriend, you know I really haven't changed that much, waiting for me."

Jason grinned, his eyes glinting with promise. "Good. Then I'll tell what I want. I want us. I don't think I have ever really given that up. I want us to work this time. I won't rush it; I've learned to be patient. We can take our time and work our way slowly back to where we were before, when we were still in Switzerland. Just don't shut down on me and tell me you are at least willing to try."

"I want that, too," admitted Trini softly.

**

Jason and Trini spent a wonderful day together. They had left a note for the others and left them to sleep off their hangovers. They had fun snowboarding and finally decided to call it a day at around 4 and packed up their gears. As they drove out of the parking lot, Trini smiled at Jason, "Thank you for coming with me, Jason. I haven't had this much fun in a long time."

"Hey, you don't have to thank me. I had a great time, too." Jason said as he headed down the hill and back onto the main road. "Wanna stop for a snack? I've been having this vision of golden brown onion rings and French fries all afternoon."

"Sure, I would love some junk food.

Jason grinned at Trini before turning to the clerk at Burger King, "Two large orders of fries, two large orders of onion rings, and two medium coke, please."

The clerk punched in their order, "would you like burgers to go with that, sir?"

Jason shook his head and grinned, "no, thank you. We are trying to eat healthy."

The clerk gave him a weird look before going to pick up their order. They took their food and went to sit down at a table at the corner, "you couldn't have just say 'no thank you', and leave it at that?"

"What?"

Trini picked up the container of onion rings, "you know what's in here? 510 calories, 27 grams of fat, 810mg sodium, and that's without the ketchup."

Jason just shoved an onion ring into his mouth, "and your point is? Where are you getting this stuff from anyways?"

Trini blushed, "I read the nutritional guide one day while I was waiting for my food. Okay, okay, I'm a dork."

Jason chuckled, "You are not a dork, silly. I forgot that you are the cool nerd with the photographic memory."

Trini threw a fry at him but she was grinning, "this is nice."

Jason agreed, "I always thought Burger King makes great onion rings, much better than Outback or Chili's and without the stupid names."

Trini laughed, "No, I mean this is nice, being here with you again."

Jason smiled, "Yeah, it is. Want to remind me why we broke up?"

_~flashback~_

February, 1998

Switzerland

"Come home with me!"

"I can't."

"Yes, you can. You just get on a plane and--"

"Jason, I can't. I…I am needed here. I signed on for this, and it isn't fair for me to leave when we are in the middle of the Peace Conference."

"Fine. Then we will both stay. I made a commitment just as you did."

Trini shook her head, her expression sad. "No, you are needed back in Angel Grove. You know it. I know it."

"I won't leave you." Jason shook his head stubbornly.

"It won't be forever. We are two individuals; we don't have to live out of each other's pockets. Right now we can't travel on the same path. Angel Grove does not need me, but they need you. You need to go back because you won't be able to live with yourself otherwise, knowing that you can help but choosing not to. That isn't you, Jason."

"Then come back with me." Jason pleaded.

"Jason, we have done good work since we have been here. I've learned so much, but there is so much more to be done. I…I can't just leave. I can be useful here. I know I can help to make a difference. Back in Angel Grove, I will just be…Jason's girlfriend."

His eyes dimmed, "and that's not enough for you."

Trini shook her head sadly, "That shouldn't be enough for anybody. You know I remember watching this soap opera with my mom one day and the girl told this guy that she was nothing without him. I remember thinking how could anyone be that sad and pathetic. That's not romantic; it's downright degrading. I don't want to be this sad person who has no identity, who can not be defined base on her own merits. I have to stay here and learn to be my own person, figure out my own worth. You need to go back to Angel Grove and help save the world."

"I don't want to leave you. I don't want to lose what we have."

"I know. But you need to go do what you were destined to do, and I need to stay and do what I am supposed to do. Jason, this isn't forever. God, we are still only seventeen. I will come back."

_~End flashback~_

"Why did you stop writing?"

Trini gazed off into the distance, her food forgotten. "I…I didn't want to tie you down."

Jason grabbed her hand until she turned back to face him. "I was in love with you."

"I know, and I was in love with you." Trini said, her eyes dark and luminous. "But we were only 17, Jason. We were…each other's first in everything. Neither one of us ever even had a date with someone else. It was too…intense. Seventeen year olds should not have the kind of love affair that just consumes you entirely. We weren't ready."

"I only wanted to be with you."

"Jason, you never gave yourself a chance to be with anyone else. You were so idealistic. You built up this…fairy tale in your head that we would just love each other and spend the rest of our lives living happily ever after. Real life is not like that. You can't just…live on love. I didn't want you to wake up one day and feel trapped."

"You mean you didn't want to feel trapped." Jason said bitterly.

Trini bit down hard on her lower lip, but then she nodded her head, accepting the truth for what it was. "I didn't feel trapped, not at the time. But, I couldn't helped but wondered about the what ifs. Jason, you and I, we grew up together. I think…I think we had always wanted to see if we could be a couple, but there were always obstacles standing in our way. When we were in Switzerland, we were finally able to act on those feelings. We didn't need to worry about fraternizations. We didn't have parents that would have made us feel guilty or demanded explanations. We had no parental supervision, and all of a sudden, we were free to be together, fall in love, act on it and we built our lives around that, dreaming that it would always be like that, we would always be happy. But, when Tommy called you back, I realized that we both had other obligations."

"What I felt for you was real, Trini. I wasn't just living out a childhood fantasy. I was in love with you."

Trini nodded, "I never doubted that, and I was in love with you. You were everything to me, but…I saw what would have happened if we continued the way we were. Be honest, Jason, you thought you were ready to marry me, and had I stayed with you, we probably would have gotten married, maybe even had a child—"

"I wanted a little girl that looks just like you."

Trini nodded again, "That was part of my dreams too; kids that looked like both of us. But then where would we be? Would we be living with your parents? My parents? Or would we have quit school and gotten jobs at McDonalds? What would have happened to us? I grew up with parents who were both working professionals. I want to make something of myself. Part of the reason why you loved me was because I was strong and independent. You didn't fall in love with June Cleaver. I didn't want us to have any regrets, and I didn't want either one of us to resent the other one day for what we might have given up."

"I was so angry at you when you just stop taking my calls or answering my letters. Shit, you even went so far as to delete you email and IM accounts."

"I'm sorry, but you needed to move on, and I didn't know how else to make you do it." Trini looked down at her hands for a moment and then looked up at Jason, there was no accusation in her eyes, just the truth, "and you did move on."

"I never would have gotten together with Emily if I wasn't so mad at you." Jason admitted. "When I lost my gold ranger power, I needed you so badly then, but you weren't there and Emily was. I guess…I guess she was the distraction that I needed at the time."

Trini nodded. She wasn't going to get jealous over something that she had instigated.

Jason sighed as he ran a hand down his face, "And you know what was really fucked up about the whole relationship? Tommy was right, Emily was my rebound chick. I was being unfair to her right from the start."

"Jason, don't do this. You are not that kind of guy. All you did was tried to move on with your life."

Jason shook his head, "Don't put me on a pedestal, Trini. Emily and I barely lasted six months. We broke up before I went to UCLA. I felt sad that we didn't work out, but it wasn't even one tenth of how I felt when I realized you were dumping me." At the hurt look in her eyes, "Trini, you must have known that your version of allowing me to move on is my version of being dumped."

Trini nodded, acknowledging her mistake, "You're right. I screwed up, didn't I? I should have handled it better."

Jason shrugged, "You did it the only way you knew how. There was no way you could have talked me into willingly break up with you. I just wish...I hadn't used Emily to make myself feel better over our breakup. I did care for her; I just wish I had felt more."

"That's also part of your growing up. I expected you to meet different girls, and some would mean more to you than others." Trini said softly.

Jason hesitated, _~don't ask, Jason, you don't want to know~ _yet, he opened his mouth anyway, "what about you? Was there…someone else?"

Trini bit her lip nervously, "there was no rebound guy. I spent that whole time deciding on colleges and majors."

"Did you miss me at all?"

"You know I did. It was hard, but I made my choice, even if at times I thought my choice sucked. I gave you up; I wasn't going to play yo-yo with your heart. Whatever I had to put up with was entirely on me. It was up to me to deal with."

Jason's brow furrowed, "When you came back that summer after graduation, what were you planning to do?"

Trini shrugged, "I don't know. I don't think…I missed you terribly. I had to come back, my parents expected me to, and I don't honestly know what I would have done if you weren't already with Emily at that time."

"So, you are saying that there was a chance we could have gotten back together, but I blew it."

Trini shook her head vigorously, "No, you went on to live your life just the way I wanted you to. We were still too young at that point to be in a serious relationship. The reason why I broke up with you in Switzerland still stand. But, had there been no Emily and if you had came to me, I don't think I would have been strong enough to say no."

Jason took a deep breath and then blew it out slowly, "you were barely home for two weeks before you took off again. You didn't even say good-bye."

Trini nodded, "I saw what I was doing to your relationship with Emily. She didn't like me and with good reasons. I was the ex-girlfriend whom you were paying just a little too much attention. I let you go so we could both grow up and to pursue other options. My being back was ruining things for you. And when I was given the opportunity to go to China that summer, I told myself it was an opportunity for growth instead of--."

"You were running away," sighed Jason. "Your mom told my mom that you were accepted to every school that you applied to, including Stanford and Berkeley, but you ended up going to the University of Maryland, that was to get away from me, wasn't it?"

"I guess…I guess I figured that the only way we could stay away from each other is if I put enough distance between us." Trini looked at him timidly, "do you understand?"

Jason closed his eyes, "I understand your motivation, but I still don't know if I agree." He shook his head as if he was shaking off all negative energies, "It doesn't matter anymore. I'm going to let the past stay in the past. What I want to know is, what are we going to do now?"

"Can you forgive me?"

"There is nothing to forgive. You did what you felt was right. I may not agree, but you did it for both of us. I am not going to live the rest of my life in bitterness, wondering about what might have happened. For all I know you could be right and we could have ended up bitter and resentful, tied up with a messy divorce fighting over custody and with no marketable skills. All I care about right now is what are we going to do now."

"I meant what I said this morning, Jason. I want to give us another chance, but we were always friends first, and we weren't really friends the last seven years. I want to rebuild our friendship, and after that, if you still want to…"

"I can pretty much guarantee you that I will always want to."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Dinner was a rowdy and sumptuous affair. Margie had made them baked chicken with three different types of vegetables and homemade clam chowder soup. Of course, Jason had plenty of reservation until he was assured that the thing that looked like chicken and smelled like chicken really was chicken.

After dinner, they had loaded the dishwasher and Billy had offered liquor, but neither Jason or Trini was a big fan of alcohol and the other three were still feeling the consequences of their over indulgence from the night before. So instead, Jason offered to make coffee while the others went into the living room to light the fire.

When Jason came out carrying the tray with five steaming mugs of coffee, it was to find Kimberly and Billy sitting on the long luxurious leather couch while Zack was sitting next to Trini on the matching loveseat. Jason frowned and set the tray down on the coffee table, "Sorry, guys, I forgot the cream and sugar. Zack, can you go get them?"

Zack chuckled and stood, "sure, man, Trini, save my seat, ok?"

Jason glared at him and was going to sit down next to Trini anyway when Kim sneaked around him and plopped down right next to Trini. Jason turned around with a frustrated look on his face while Kimberly wrapped her arms around Trini and snuggled closer, "my Trini." Kim winked at Billy and the billionaire started to chuckle. Zack came out with the cream and sugar, saw what happened and started to laugh along with them. Trini lowered her head but not before Jason caught the grin on her face. Zack put the cream and sugar down on the coffee table and took a seat at the other end of the sofa, "I see Trini let seat stealer Kimmy steals my seat. That's fine, who wants to sit with some stinky girls anyway?" Patting the seat between him and Billy, Zack lowered his voice an entire octave, " Jase, this here is the manly couch. See, I saved you a seat."

Kim burst out laughing and was soon joined by Zack and Billy. Jason turned red, but then figured since he was already embarrassed, he should get something out of it, and he really, really wanted to be close to Trini. So, he marched over and just pulled Kim out of her seat and gave her a gentle push toward the couch, "go sit over there with the rest of the laughing hyenas."

Kimberly staggered over and fell down in between the guys and finally stopped laughing, "Okay, so what's been happening with everybody? We never did get around to finding out last night?"

"That was because you were too busy bitching about all of Tommy's former fiancées," said Zack.

Kim pouted, "I did not. It's not my fault that they air all their dirty laundries in public. All I did was look them up on the internet. It was all right there, in black and right, and sometimes colors, too. I knew that chick from the Victoria Secret catalogue was anorexic and she only looked good because of all that plastic surgeries. Oh yeah, Tommy really picked a winner with that psycho chick with the temper tantrums and DOIs. And the one with the video—"

Trini interrupted her, "Kim, you do know that not all of that stuff is true, right?"

Kim shrugged, "videos don't lie. It's not my fault that Tommy only hooked up with freaks after he lost me."

"Well, we will be meeting one in a couple of days, let's reserve our opinions until then," said Billy diplomatically. "Right now, I would really like to hear from Jason and Trini. What you two been up to? Jase, this is the first time I have seen you since I left for Aquitar. All I have heard since I came back was that you were in the Navy."

Jason shrugged, "I was just getting ready to start my junior year at UCLA when September 11 happened. I enlisted the next day."

Zack glanced at his friend and nodded. Honor, integrity, principles, those were all synonyms of Jason Lee Scott. Of course he would feel it was his duty to enlist. "I know a lot of soldiers who served in the Army, but you are the first Navy Seal I know. What was it like?"

Jason shrugged, "The SEALs are pretty much like other military folks, just more…"

Kim cut in, "Come on, Jase. Even I know that they don't just let anyone become a SEAL. My step dad talks about them like they have three heads or something."

Jason rubbed a hand across the back of his neck and grimaced slightly, "I applied, got in, went through 24 months of training before I even gotten my first post. My specialty was diving, so for two years, I was on a lot of search and rescue missions. I was stationed in Afghanistan for a year, but ours was not a patrol unit. We spent that year mostly searching out high level terrorists and doing hostage rescues."

"Man, and all this time I imagined you parachuting into the middle of a jungle fighting off guerilla terrorists," Zack laughed. "I got that from the commercials."

"No, when we did have to parachute, it was into the middle of the ocean, defusing bombs or doing demolition work. I'm telling you guys, there really isn't a whole lot to tell. There's nothing glamorous or heroic about war. We lost four guys from our unit in one year. These were young men with promising futures and families. People die. I can't put it any other way."

Trini frowned. She could tell Jason was hurting, obviously reliving some painful memories. She knew that feeling well, way back from the days when they were all Power Rangers. But for Jason, that feeling was much more recent and raw. Out of instinct, she reached out and grabbed his hand, holding it tightly in hers. Jason looked slightly surprised, but at least that haunted look became less noticeable. He smiled at her, "I'm okay. You guys don't have to worry. I didn't come back all bitter and stuff, just…less naive. There are still things that I have to work through, but I will work through them."

"And you are now a civilian?" asked Billy.

"Yeah, I committed to a 4 year contract. I never intended for it to be a career. You know, when you are twenty and something like September 11 happens, your instinct is to jump in and protect your country. I guess I was kind of naive, thinking that we would avenge what happened that day and to rid the world of terrorists. But the reality was kind of disappointing. While I know the things we did were necessary, there's no way to win this war because at the end, there really is no winner. I've seen too many civilian casualties; sometimes it was our fault. There are too many people who shouldn't be in this war, but they are there fighting because they have no choice. When we were Power Rangers, we knew clearly what we were up against. We were fighting monsters, not humans. It became too real when your enemy is just another young man with idealistic dreams. Sometimes the lines can get blurry. I know terrorism is a threat, and the only way to get rid of that threat is to eliminate the people responsible. I don't have problem with that. But when the innocents get caught in the crossfire…Anyway, I'm just glad to be home. I've been away for too long."

"Well, we are glad you are home," smiled Kimberly and artfully changed the subject. "I heard you went back to UCLA?"

"Yeah, I tried to finish my Engineering degree on-line, but there were a couple of classes I wasn't able to complete on-line. The timing was perfect; I was able to enroll back into the fall quarter. I pretty much just stepped off the plane and then stepped back onto the campus. My last final was last Thursday. I'm officially done."

"That's great, man, but what do you plan to do now?" inquired Zack.

Jason shrugged, "Spend some time with my folks, reconnect with old friends, and start job hunting. Billy, your invitation came at the perfect time. I missed all you guys so much. I was planning on looking you guys up after the holidays."

"I would still like to discuss the option of employment with you," said Billy, quickly shaking his head when he saw Jason grimaced, "not tonight. Maybe after the new year, just keep it in mind, alright?"

Jason nodded, but his expression was still skeptical.

Zack rolled his shoulder, "Okay, Trini, let's hear your story. I know you went to the University of Maryland and you were studying Criminology, but then I called your house and your mom told me you were on assignment in Morocco, guarding some big shot from San Francisco. I swear I almost dropped the phone. How did that happen?"

Trini shrugged, "actually I had a double major, Criminology and Computer Science. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but I figured if I didn't go tech, I would go into criminal law. After graduation, I decided that I didn't have what it takes to be a lawyer," she raised her hand when she saw the others were going to argue the point. "It's true. The laws do not give you any leeway, and I don't believe everything is always black or white. There are always shades of gray, but the law doesn't recognize that. So, I decided that I would go into technology, but I didn't want to just sit behind a desk and write applications all day. I talk to some people, my professors, my parents, and decided that I would combine the two. I decided to go into security, but I would offer both system security as well as personal safety. And having studied the law, I know where to draw the line."

Jason looked at her quizzically, "you plan to have your own company?"

Trini nodded, "I know what I want to do. I want to be able to offer companies ways to safeguard their electronic data, protect their premises and also personal security if they require it. But before I can do that, I need to gain some actual experience. I don't think I will have a problem with offering technical security, but the personal part, well, that would be a challenge. So, I decided that the only way for me to learn is to actually become a bodyguard. Plus, the pay was excellent, and I need the money if I want to eventually open up my own business. I went through six months of extensive training, from weapons, hand to hand combat, to learning how to read people, strategize, how to look for danger, assess different situations, and then I spent the last two years working for this firm in San Francisco."

"Don't hit me, but sweetie, you really don't look like a bodyguard." Said Zack.

Trini rolled her eyes, "I'm not really supposed to. As much as I hate to admit it, bodyguards are still predominately men. Celebrities are really the only ones who want their bodyguards to look bulky and menacing. I guess it's so that the paparazzi or the groupies would stay away. Most of the time, I was hired to guard the family members of politicians and businessmen. They would actually prefer their bodyguards to blend in. Sometimes I was little more than a babysitter."

"Okay, which celebrities did you guard, and what kind of gossips do you have for us?' asked Kim excitedly.

"Sorry, Kim. I signed a confidentiality agreement. I can tell you whom I have guarded, but I can't tell you anything about what I have seen or heard."

"Are you kidding me? I would share with you if I had any juicy details."

"Hey, I'm sure your team had a security detail when you were in the Pan Global games or during the Olympic tryouts. Would you have like your bodyguards to tell their friends everything they have seen?"

"Touché!"

"So, when and where is your next assignment?" asked Jason.

Trini shrugged and tucked her legs under her, "actually the reason why I went to see my boss yesterday before coming up here was to hand in my resignation. I spent the last three weeks in Italy chasing after two dimwits who thought the threat of kidnapping was a joke. I have had enough of treating spoiled brats like they are royalties. I did what I had to do, you know, served my time? Anyway, I have learned a lot in the last two years, enough for me to feel comfortable taking the next step, which is for me to put everything together. I am going to go home to Angel Grove after this and start planning, see if I want to establish my business in Angel Grove or some place else. Right now, I'm thinking I will most likely setup shop in either LA or Seattle. I don't want to move too far away. I have a lot to figure out, and of course, I will have to start thinking about hiring new employees, training and all the other stuff. I might even have to consider finding a partner, but I'm not going to think about all that until after the holidays. For now, I just want to catch up with you guys, have some fun." She smiled at the group, "Okay, enough about me, Zack?"

Jason slowly exhaled; glad to know that Trini would at least stick around for a while. Turning his attention to Zack, "Yeah, man, when did you decide to give up dancing?"

"I still dance; I would never give that up, and I would never deprive you guys the joy of watching me dance," grinned Zack. "I'm actually part owner of an amateur dance company in Los Angeles. We are in the process of putting together a show for the end of February. But, I also know that while dancing is my passion, I want more than just to live on bare necessities. A business degree was a safe choice, and I'm happy to say that I made the right decision. I started as a junior copywriter for this advertising firm, then, Billy called out of the blue and now, I have the best of both worlds. I have a job that allows me to have things that I want and I can still find the time to dance. Let me tell you, dancing is a lot more fun when it is not a job."

Jason nodded, "I'm glad you are happy."

"Yeah, life is good. Especially if I can convince our cute little choreographer to go with me to the New Year's bash that Crimson is throwing." Zack winked.

Kimberly smirked, "your so called charms not working?"

Zack shrugged, "she's playing hard to get. Let's move on. Kimmy, the floor is yours."

Kimberly stood up and playfully took a bow, "Well, actually my story is not so different from Zack's. While I love gymnastics, there isn't a whole lot I can do if I don't compete. I don't really see myself contended to teach for the rest of my life. And like Zack, I want a job that allows me to be financially secured. I went into Economics, weird, huh. Considering I had trouble balancing my checkbook. Anyway, Billy was back by the time I graduated and he was working on these wonderful new products but he didn't know what do to beyond producing that product. I volunteered to help. I made all these calls and gotten him into contact with the right people. Billy offered me a job, and there you have it."

"Life is good for you too?" Trini asked.

"Definitely. I'm happier than I have been in a long time. I admit initially it was a lot of work, getting the products manufactured and packaged, getting the word out to the right people, and trying to find distributors that were both high end and willing to take on an unknown. Putting up with rude assistants who kept trying to put me off. But now, it's the other way around. People are calling me. I have a good paying job, and I get invitations everywhere. I love what I do. I guess it would be difficult if I were trying to market encyclopedias or Tupperware or something equally boring, but cosmetics, hey, that's something I know and love. Gymnastics is now a hobby, and I actually love it even more without the constant pressure of doing everything right every time."

Trini nodded and then turned to look at Billy, "I think I'm most surprised by your career choice. Honestly, I'm having such a hard time with all this--" as she waved a hand around the room.

"Like I was telling Jason, I had to give up my dreams of being a NASA scientist or the founder of the next Goggle. I was disappointed, but life is full of trials and tribulations, and I was determined to succeed. I know, Trini, you think that of all the things I could have invented, I came up with some thing so frivolous—"

"Billy, it's not my place to—"

"It's okay. I thought so at first too. But then I realized that while cosmetics might not be life saving like a cure for cancer is, it is important to a lot of people. It makes them feel good about themselves, and that's important also. I like the idea that my product can bring joy and self-confidence to people. And the most important thing is I'm able to give back. I have three thousand employees working in the United States. Imagine that, I'm helping three thousand families to put a roof over their heads and food on the table. So, even if my product isn't as noble as a cure for cancer, it is not wasted."

"Billy, I'm sorry if I had given you the impression that I was criticizing you, I wasn't." Trini said.

"I'm sorry, too." Billy said. "I know you were not, Trini. It's just that I guess a lot of people had expectations of me and I know my dad is not happy about my choice. He thought I have sold out. I guess I was just afraid that you would also think of me that way."

"Billy, I'm proud of you. I don't think you have sold out. That's ridiculous. Just because you are a genius doesn't mean that you are going to be the one to come up with a cure for cancer or aids or any other kind of illness. I'm proud of you because you have made a choice and you are doing the best that you can with what you have chosen to do. Billy, there's nothing wrong with being successful. It's what we all strive to be."

"Thank you, Trini," said Billy, smiling a little.

Zack sat up straight and looked around the room. They have all grown so much. Life had changed all of them, but underneath they were still the same. Jason was still the same strong and noble young man that he remembered from way back when, but there was also certain weariness in his eyes, like he had lived and seen things, unpleasant things, which of course, he had. Trini was still that young, intelligent, quiet girl from high school, but it was apparent that she had gained a fair amount of self-confidence. Little Trini Kwan was all grown up, and she was the one in charge of her own destiny. Kimberly while appeared poised and sophisticated to the outside world, when among friends she was still that bubbly, engaging young girl with the Olympic dreams. Outwardly, Billy had gone from geek to savoir-faire, but he still retained that need to please and his love for Science had not disappeared. All one had to do was to visit his lab back home. And then Zack looked inside himself, sure, he was still the jokester but he also craved to settle down and having a family of his own. Zack sighed, _~in time, it will happen.~_ "I see we all seem happy with our career choices," glanced at Jason, "or at least we are contend with them. What about regrets? The biggest disappointment you have since…leaving behind the powers."

"Well, it's not like I don't know that life sucks on occasion, but I never get to realize my Olympic dreams." Kim said dejectedly.

Trini remembered the week she had spent trying to cheer up Kimberly after it was announced that she did not make the team. She turned and smiled at Jason, he returned her smile with slight nod of his head. Trini got up and went over to the couch, pushing Zack over and sat down beside Kimberly, and Kim leaned her head on Trini's shoulder, seeking comfort. "I was so close."

"It's okay, Kim. Just imagine the lack of privacy you would be dealing with now had you won an Olympic medal." Jason said. "Besides, you were a medal winner at Pan Global."

Kimberly stared at Jason, a little put out. "Which no one had ever heard of? Do you know how many times I've gotten huh? what? when I mentioned the Pan Global? If it isn't the Olympics, it doesn't exist! I would have deal with the fame just fine. Damn it, I was born to be a diva. You would think all the good we did as Power Rangers would have guaranteed us some sort of return favors. And it's not like I am asking for anything that I didn't work for. I trained really, really hard. But no, my spot was handed to a pimple faced sixteen year old just because she managed a solid landing and was one fraction of a stinky point ahead of me." Trini patted her back sympathetically while Kimberly continued to rant. "A skinny little brat with zero social skills. And did you see what she was wearing when she went on Letterman? And she was gushing about Michelle Kwan on the Today's show. Hello, she was totally giving free advertisement for the winter Olympics! And the stupid twit got herself a tampon commercial!"

"Kim, you had the Mattel doll, remember?" Trini volunteered hesitantly.

"Which they pulled off the shelve when I didn't make the team! There were less than a hundred sold before they yanked them, and I wanted every girl in America to have one."

"I have one." Trini said, smiling.

"I gave that to you," yelled Kim.

"Right," Trini said, sinking back in her seat.

Jason grinned at Trini sympathetically, "Come on, Kim. Had you made the team, you would be missing all those Bloomingdale sales. You would be two seasons behind all the latest fashions and…shoes."

"Oh, shut up!" Kim grabbed a cushion and threw it at Jason, but she was starting to smile.

"Besides, they would drag you through the mud just on that YouTube video alone." Zack said, grinning somewhat evilly.

"What YouTube video?" Billy asked.

"Wait, you telling me you haven't seen it?" Zack said, that evil grin just gotten wider and a lot more evil.

Billy shook his head while Trini and Jason dug their heads to keep from laughing out loud. Kim pouted, "How was I supposed to know?"

Billy looked from one grinning face to the other, "Anyone wants to share?"

"Oh let me, Please!" Zack put his hands together and begged.

Kim gave a loud "humph" and sat back, crossing her arms in annoyance while Jason and Trini both smiled and waved at Zack, giving him the floor.

"Okay, now this was around the time Kim lost…er…parted ways with the Olympics. I guess you were still on Aquitar. Apparently Victoria Secret was having their semi annual sale, and of course our girl was right there. She got into a little tug-of-war with another shopper over a sexy little piece of pink thong with feather and there were some exchange of words which floozy, slut, skank, tart, trollop, and town whore were thrown around a lot."

"And walking VD!" Trini piped in and quickly made a motion of zipping her lips when Kimberly glared at her.

"Oh please, as if that heifer would have been able to fit into a size small!" Kim groused. "And what kind of pervert take videos with a cell phone at a lingerie store?"

Zack cleared his throat, "Anyway, our girl Kimmy and the…heifer ended up tearing the feather off the thong and I believe our Kim was wielding it as a weapon of sort and the whole thing was caught on video and shown on YouTube with the Rocky theme song playing in the background. There must have been like a million hits on the video."

Billy jumped up, "Computers are in the conference room!"

* * *

Thank you for the feedback!


	9. Chapter 9

First, I want to thank you. It means a lot that you guys are reading and leaving feedback.

A couple of things I feel are worth mentioning:

While the actress who played Trini was Vietnamese, the character Trini Kwan was Chinese. The subject was touched on briefly during the episode "Gung Ho" when Trini explained to Jason and Tommy that 'gung ho' means working together in Chinese. More importantly, Kwan is a Chinese last name, not Vietnamese.

Also, I've just started on chapter 12, and as of right now, I'm going to say this story will be no more than twenty chapters, probably less.

Thanks again!

* * *

Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Not mine.

December 22, 2005

South Lake Tahoe, NV

The next morning when Kimberly came down stairs, she found only Billy and Zack in the kitchen eating scrambled eggs and sausages. "Where are Jason and Trini?"

Billy picked up a piece of notepaper that was stuck onto the refrigerator and handed it to her. Kim's eyes doubled in size upon reading it, "are they crazy? They went running? It's freezing out there."

"That's not the only thing they did. Do you see the driveway? They cleared the snow from last night; it was snowing pretty heavily." Billy said, filling a plate for Kimberly.

Zack shrugged, "Well, since we did say we were just going to take it easy today, they probably wanted to get their work out in early."

"We said we were going to snowmobile, that's not exactly just sitting on our ass--"

Zack and Billy both laughed, "Kim, honey, I think we would be sitting on our ass."

"Oh shut up, stop being such a smart ass."

Zack leaned over to Billy and whispered loudly, "not that I could blame her, but I think she's a little obsessed with my ass."

Kimberly leaned over and whacked Zack on the head. "Those two are scary sometimes. Isn't this supposed to be a vacation? Couldn't they just take one leisure day, sit around and do nothing?"

"Talking about us?" Jason asked as he and Trini walked in together. Their faces and noses were red, either from their run or from the cold.

"Yes, are you guys okay?" asked Kim. They were both dressed in only long sleeve T-shirts and sweatpants.

"Of course," Jason said, grabbing two bottles of water and handing one to Trini. "It's a bit cold out there, but it's gorgeous."

Trini nodded, "Jason and I ran along the lake. It's absolutely beautiful."

"Don't you think it's a little cold out there?" asked Kim.

Jason nodded, "it's real cold. That's why we ran."

Kim sighed in annoyance and Trini shook her head, "I'm going to hit the shower and then we can head out."

"Take your time. There is no rush. I can fix you guys some breakfast while you shower." Billy offered. "Scrambled eggs and sausages or hash browns?"

"Hash browns, please. Thanks, Billy." Jason smiled and ran up the stairs.

The hash browns were still in the pan when Trini and Jason came back down, both have showered and changed into sweaters and jeans. "It must have been snowing last night. There's at least an extra foot of snow outside."

Billy nodded as he filled two plates with scrambled eggs and hash browns. "Yeah, today would be a great day for skiing."

Trini pouted and Jason hugged her, "We'll go back tomorrow."

"I know. I just miss it so much. Remember when we were in Switzerland? We used to be able to snowboard almost every weekend. Now? This is the first time I have been back up on the slope in the last year."

"Hey, remember that weekend skiing trip we went on in Engelberg? The one that was hosted by the school?" asked Zack, smiling as he relived some fond memories.

"Yeah, that was the first time Trini and I went snowboarding." Jason pondered, "Seems like a life time ago."

Zack turned to Kim and Billy, "that was supposed to be a ski trip, the school even supplied us with the equipment and everything, but Jason and Trini ditched us and went off snowboarding."

"It was Trini's idea. She wanted to try snowboarding, and then she just took to it like she was born with snowboard on. She was amazing," grinned Jason.

"So were you. Those two went to take a lesson and ended up leaving their instructor stranded on the slope while they raced around all day like they have been snowboarding for years." Laughed Zack as Jason and Trini sat down to eat their breakfast.

"Really?" Billy shook his head, chuckling along with Zack, "It doesn't surprise me one bit. Jason and Trini have always been exceptional athletes and they can learn anything in a tenth of the time that a normal person can."

"I'm more interested in what you guys did to the instructor and why," asked Kim.

Trini looked up innocently, "it was all Jason."

Jason had a matching innocent look, "I didn't do anything; the idiot was just clumsy."

Zack sneered, "probably had a little more to do with stupidity than clumsiness."

"I did say he was a clumsy idiot," said Jason, no longer smiling.

"What's the story?" asked Billy.

Jason just shook his head, and Zack laughed loudly, "Pretty Boy Noah tried to move in on Trini. He was lucky Jase didn't kick him down the mountain."

_~flashback~_

Trini jumped excitedly. "This is going to be so much fun. I always wanted to try snowboarding, but never had the chance."

Jason grinned at his girlfriend, her long, glossy, almost jet black hair was tied back in a single long braid, her face rosy due to the cold, mountain air, her eyes gleaming with excitement. Jason reached out and touched that baby soft skin of hers, and then leaned over and whispered in her ear, "You look really pretty."

Trini looked startled, "What?"

Jason just smiled. Then the moment was broken when their snowboard instructor came striding up to them. He was a young man in his early twenties, tall, broad, blonde hair, with beautiful blue eyes, the kind of guy that usually ended up modeling for Abercrombie & Fitch. He smiled at both of them and introduced himself as "Noah."

"Now I understand neither one of you had ever snowboarded before?"

Both Trini and Jason shook their heads, laughing slightly. "We both skate board and surf, does that help?" Trini asked. With her porcelain skin, clear, shinning eyes and a smile that was bright enough to eclipse the sun, she was strikingly adorable, and the effect wasn't lost on either man.

Sure enough, Noah was just a man, and a weak one at that. He looked Trini over appreciatively, "I'm sure that will help your balance. Although I must say, Trini, you look so graceful, I'm sure you will have no problem staying on the board."

Trini's smile dimmed immediately, she took a step closer to Jason and forced another smile, "Well, that's why Jason and I are here, to learn the basics so that we can stay on."

Noah smiled, flashing that Colgate smile of his, "Okay, so Trini, which is your stronger leg?"

"Beg your pardon?"

Noah flash that blinding smile again at Trini, totally ignoring Jason, "Which leg do you kick with if you were playing…soccer?"

"Dude, they already set things up when we picked up our boards," Jason chimed in impatiently.

Noah glared at Jason and Trini bumped him slightly to get him to back off.

"Oh, my right, I guess." Trini answered, wishing they had another instructor, preferably an ugly, female instructor. "Oh, so does Jason."

"Right, of course." Noah came forward and took Trini's snowboard, laying it down on the ground. "Since you will be pushing off with your right leg, you want to put on your left foot into the binding as that will be your front foot."

"Okay," Trini said, sticking her booted foot onto the board.

"Here, let me help you."

Trini quickly slid her foot in before Noah had even finished speaking, "Thanks, but I got it. Why don't you help Jason?"

Jason crossed his arms across his chest and grinned almost evilly, "Yeah, dude, I can really use some help over here."

Noah stepped over to Jason reluctantly, "Right, of course. You need to step into the binding." Noah said leaning down and showing Jason where to insert his boot just as Jason kicked his boot into the binding, kicking Noah in his hand. "Ouch!"

"Oh, man, I'm so sorry! I didn't really kick you that hard, did I?"

Trini turned her head away, but Jason could see her shoulder shaking slightly. His grin widened and he deliberately adopted a somewhat stupid look on his face, "I hope I didn't hurt you."

"No, no, of course not." Noah gritted his teeth. "You got it. That's it." He rubbed his hand back and forth on his jacket. "Trini, how are you doing?"

Trini turned around and she has now put on her sunglasses, so her expressive eyes were no longer visible. "Fine, just waiting for instruction."

"Right, okay, let's see, the first thing we do is to learn how to skate. You will need do this as you enter or exit the lift or if you need to go uphill. The way to do this is to keep your front foot in the binding and kick with your back foot." Noah demonstrated, then watched as both Trini and Jason did it perfectly with no effort at all. "Good, good, that's it. You are a natural at this, Trini."

"Next, we are going to learn how to do the heel and toe slides, traverse and linking the turns."

Jason and Trini watched Noah demonstrated and they both got it on the first try.

Noah watched as Trini practiced again linking the turns, her movements graceful and sure. "You are amazing, Trini. I have never seen anyone who can pick up snowboarding as quickly as you can."

Trini rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses while Jason muttered beside her in a voice soft enough that only she could hear, "Right, you are the goddess and I am the village idiot. I should have kicked him in the head."

"Don't you dare do anything to get us kicked out of here. I want to snowboard."

"How could I do anything?" muttered Jason. "I'm invisible."

Before Trini could form an answer, Noah was once again standing right in front of her, invading her space. They had gone uphill while learning how to skate; consequently, they were standing on top of a small hill. "Okay, the next thing we are going to do is learn how to glide. We are going to glide down this hill. The way to do this is really simple. Once you find your balance, place your back foot in front of the back binding and lean forward. That will coast you downhill, point your toes down to move forward and shift your weight back to slow down or stop. Trini, why don't give it a try. Don't be afraid. I'll be gliding right by your side."

Jason snorted, "Well, since Trini is the graceful, limber one here, she's not going to need you to hold her hands. I'm the bumbling idiot, maybe you should be gliding by my side."

Noah had the audacity to glare at Jason, "Maybe I should find you another instructor. I think Trini is ready to do some real snowboarding. I was thinking of taking her up the chairlift to the next slope so she could get the feel of a real run."

Before Jason could reply, Trini jumped right in, "Yeah, I want to go up to a higher slope, but Jason is coming with us."

"Trini, I really don't think Jason is ready. One of our other instructor, Jonathon, has another class that he's teaching right now. I can put Jason in—"

Now it was Trini who glared at Noah, "Jason is just shy and modest. He's actually doing better than I am. If he isn't ready, then neither am I."

Noah took a deep breath, and then glanced at both of his students before grinning, "Of course, as you wish, we will all head for a higher slope. Follow me." With that, Noah took off for the chairlift, skating quickly toward the lift. His attempt at showing off was obvious, but he was in for a rude awakening when his two students overtook him and arrived at the base of the lift before he did. Noah watched in dismay as his two students shared a chairlift and took off without him. "Wait, Trini, you need to be careful getting off the lift—"

Jason and Trini executed a perfect exit on the chairlift simply by watching the people in the front. They got off and glide to one side, then watch as some other snowboarders took off. "Hey, I think we could do this on our own. I don't think we need Mr.-I-Am-the-Idiot-Who-Is-Hitting-on-Jason's-Girl to teach us anything."

Trini leaned over and kissed his lightly, "You're right. Let's just dump this jerk and do this on our own."

But before they could take off, Noah rushed up to them, finally gotten it through to his brain he could get into serious trouble if either one of his students ended up getting hurt. "Trini, let's take this slow. We'll go down together. Jason, why don't you wait here, and I will come back for you."

Knowing that his girl was about to lose her temper and ended up being the one to get them kicked out, Jason quickly stepped in. "No, I don't like standing in the cold. I think you and I should go down first. You don't mind, do you, Trini?"

Trini grinned. She was past caring. There were plenty of ski resorts in Switzerland. Enough was enough, and that idiotic instructor deserves whatever Jason has planned. "No, not at all."

Noah was still trying to protest, but Trini had already stepped off to one side. She had no intention of waiting. As soon as they take off, so was she. She felt comfortable enough to know that she could easily get down the hill safely.

"Okay, come on, Noah, let's do this, okay, buddy?" Then, to Trini shock and amusement, Jason slapped Noah hard on his back and sends him careening down the slope while desperately trying to maintain his balance. After fumbling for about fifty yards, Noah lost the fight and went face down into the snow. Trini glanced at Jason, "I feel bad. Maybe we should check on him."

Jason shrugged and they glided down the slope and executed a perfect stop right in front of Noah, who was lying on his side, his boot had came off the binding and his board ended up sitting in the snow. "Hey, dude, you okay?" Jason asked sympathetically, then stuck out his foot and "accidentally" kicked Noah's board, watching with a great deal of satisfaction as the board glided down the slope on its own and soon disappeared from sight completely.

Noah finally managed to sit up and glared at Jason angrily, "You did that on purpose." He tried to stand, but his ankle gave out on him and he sat back down on the snow. "Oh, my God, I think I've hurt my ankle."

"Of course I did that on purpose, just like you tried to steal my girl on purpose, so I guess that makes us even. Now, I'm sorry if you are really hurt. Since we don't want to see you get stranded out here, and I am such a nice guys and all, we will report this to the office and make sure your boss send someone up here to help you down."

"Wait, no, Jason, don't! Trini!"

Trini didn't even bother to acknowledge him, instead she just snowboard down the slope like a pro with Jason following her.

_~End flashback~_

"Man, I can totally see that happening." Billy laughed uproariously. "Was Noah okay?"

Jason shrugged, "Much as I just wanted to bury that S.O.B., I did promise to send help. I think they had to bring him down on a stretcher."

"That story was the highlight for a lot of us that weekend. We were staying in a two-bedroom chalet. Remember Jasmine? Every time she ran from one room to the other, we get to hear a different story."

Trini chuckled, "Oh yeah, I liked the one where Noah was actually hitting on Jason and I went psycho and attacked him with my snowboard, which was how he broke his ankle."

"My favorite was the one where Noah tried to kidnap you and I chased you guys all over the slopes and then clobbered him," Jason shook his head.

"Man, those were the good, old days!" reminisced Zack. "All twenty of us cramped into two little rooms."

"Well, if it would make you happier, Zack, we could move into the guest house. Mind you, there are only 2 bedrooms and we would all have a share a bathroom, but---"

"No, no, no, no, we are good here. Besides, none of us would get any counter space in the bathroom with Kimberly around."

And just everyone expected, Kimberly reached over and whacked Zack on the head.

Jason chuckled, "It's good to know something never changes."

**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

After spending the rest of the morning on snowmobile, the group had decided that Billy should give Margie the night off and they would fend for themselves. They spent an hour grocery shopping and after much discussion, had decided that between the five of them, they could fix a simple meal of pasta and salad. They got all the stuff they would need for dinner and headed back to the house.

Since it was too early to start dinner, Kimberly decided on a board game. She was just rounding up her friends when once again, they were missing Jason and Trini. "Okay, if those two went running again…"

Billy frowned, "I'm sure they are around somewhere."

"Come here," Zack said quietly as he stood looking out the window.

With the snowfall last night, there was no green left in sight. The front lawn was completely covered in a blanket of snow. And running around in that blanket of snow having a snowball fight were two young adults, both dressed simply in sweaters, jeans, and boots. Their jubilant laughter carried back toward the house and to the trio who were watching them indulgently.

"Well, at lest we have found our missing friends," smiled Billy. "They really do look happy, don't they?"

"Yeah," agreed Kim with a serene smile.

"That's how they were during that year in Switzerland. They were totally devoted to each other. There were plenty of people who tried to come between them, but they were so engrossed with each other, half the time, they didn't even notice." Zack said in a low voice, then with a thoughtful look on his face, "You know what? I think I'm going to go take a nap. All that sitting on my ass all morning had tired me out."

Kimberly frowned, and then she smiled, "me too. I'm going to go to my room and take a nap before dinner."

"Guys?"

Linking her arm with Billy's, Kim gave him a gentle tug, "I think you should go take a nap also."

"I don't understand—"

Zack came up to his other side, "they don't need us."

Outside Jason was still chasing Trini around the tall pine trees, pelting her with snowballs. Trini took refuge behind an ornamental rock and gathered her ammunitions, returning fire just as rapidly. Jason tried to take cover but was not quick enough. A gigantic snowball pounded him in the back, followed quickly by a succession of compact snowballs. Jason lost his footing and landed on the snow, out of breath, but laughing uproariously. Trini peeked out from behind her rock, "I told you I would get you back."

Jason sat up, not caring that he was all wet, "yes, you did, and Trini Kwan never breaks her promise."

Trini grinned and walked over to Jason, offering her hand to help him up, "maybe you should go in and dry off a little, and we should probably go see what the others are doing."

Jason reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "I really don't care what they are doing."

"Jason!"

Jason sighed, "okay," then quickly he leaned over and kissed her. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to his side, "Now I am good. Let's go see what those clowns are up to."

Trini smiled and the two walked inside just to find a house in complete silence, "where did they go?"

Jason shrugged, "I'll go check upstairs."

While Jason jogged up the stairs, Trini looked into the game room and kitchen just to make sure the others were not there. Jason came back down in less than a minute, "They are all sleeping."

"What?"

Jason ran his hand across the back of his neck, "Weird, huh? But that's what they are all doing. I guess maybe they are taking a nap since there isn't much to do? How about you? Are you tired? Do you want to take a nap also or we could watch TV."

"No, don't really want to do either." Trini looked outside, "I want to go back out and build a snowman, wanna come?"

"You are such a snow baby," Jason said affectionately, "Come on."

When Kim looked outside a couple of hours later, it was to find Trini in the process of placing a carrot on the face of the snowman that was as tall as she was. Jason had several branches in his hand and was trying to decide which ones to use for the arms. The snowman was already wearing a scarf and a red beanie was sitting proudly on top of it round head. It was a gorgeous snowman, standing proud and strong in the blistering cold. Jason and Trini had obviously did a great job packing the base to make the snowman, but what really made Kim smiled was watching the blissful smiles on their faces and hearing the joyous laughter drifting in from the outside.

**

Five grownup all crowded into the kitchen trying to make dinner may be a bit much, but they were having so much fun that no one cares if they kept getting into each others way. Jason was heating up the sauce, Trini was draining the pasta, Kim was cutting up tomato slices for the salad, and Zack was poking his head into the refrigerator trying to decide whether to use Ranch or French dressing. Billy was removing a tray of biscuits from the oven when Jason said something to Trini in Chinese.

"Hey, you guys better not be talking about us." Kim warned, waving the knife in her hand.

"Sorry, it's a word that only make sense in Chinese." Jason apologized.

Zack had finally decided to put both bottles of salad dressing on the table and started pulling out plates and utensils. Looking over at Jason with a mischievous smile, "oh, really? And you would know, right Jason? It's not like you have ever made a mistake. Hey, anyone heard from Chow and Li? Remember them, Jason? Those two foreign exchange students from China? I hope you haven't forgotten what poor Billy had gone through because of you and your translation skills?"

"Oh, my God!" Billy groaned, Jason looked embarrassed while Trini and Kimberly burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles.

_~flashback~_

May, 1996

Angel Grove High

Jason was sitting in the cafeteria with Zack talking about the birthday party that they were planning for Billy when the two foreign exchange students Chow and Li stopped by and asked to share their table.

Jason invited them to sit down and then continued his conversation with Zack, "Anyway, Trini is making the banner and Kim is asking her mom to help bake the cake. You and I are in charge of the music and making sure Billy doesn't skip out on his own party."

Chow and Li stopped eating their sandwiches and asked excitedly, "Billy's is having a birthday?"

"That's right. It's actually next Monday, but we plan on having a party for him this Saturday night at Ernie's." Knowing that they were friends with Billy, Jason felt sure the yet-to-be birthday boy would like them to be there, "would you guys like to come?"

"Oh, you are inviting us?" Li asked eagerly.

"Of course, all friends of Billy's are welcome to come." Said Zack.

"Billy has been so helpful, helping us with our homework and lending us his notes. He is so smart. I think he knows more than our Science teacher." Chow said and then turned to Li, "Hey, we should get him a really good birthday present to repay him for always helping us." Then the two broke into their own language and started conversing in Chinese. Jason, after years of Saturday classes could understand most of what they were saying.

**Translation

"Let's get him something he never had before."

"Like what?"

"Hmmm…something no one else would get him."

"What, dude?"

An impish grin, "I was thinking like…chicken."

"I don't know, they are kind of expensive and you know, we could get into trouble."

End translation **

Jason frowned, their conversation was a bit weird, but those two always did give off that weird vibe. "Billy likes chicken."

"What?" Chow swung around.

"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I speak a little Chinese and couldn't help myself." Jason apologized.

"Oh," Chow and Li looked back and forth at each other. Then, Chow asked, 'you think Billy would like to have a chicken for a birthday present? I mean we are not really sure, and we really don't want to offend him. But you and Zack are like his best friends, right? You guys know him well. Do you think it will make him happy if we send him a…chicken?"

"Sure, Billy and us are like brothers." Zack jumped in all hyped up about the party, "and I know Billy loves chicken. Oh be sure to get him white meat, he loves chicken breasts."

Chow and Li grinned like a couple of naughty kids, "Cool!"

Li then shook his head, "Man, I'm not sure if we have enough money though."

Jason's brow furrowed, "How much money do you need to get a chicken?"

"Well, we don't want any diseased chicken. We certainly don't want to just grab one off any street corner," said Chow, looking all serious and thoughtful.

"And we don't want an old chicken or an ugly chicken," chimed in Li.

"We want to get him a nice, clean chicken from…a nice, clean place, and that isn't cheap."

Zack looked at the foreign students like they were from Jupiter, "Yeah, definitely no ugly chicken."

Jason shrugged, these boys sure were weird, "maybe Zack and I can throw in a few dollars, how much do you need?"

Chow shrugged, "Not sure, it's not like we do this all the time you know. I suppose we can get a decent one for a hundred dollars. I can put up forty-five," turning to Li, "how much do you have?"

Li pulled out his wallet and counted out forty-two dollars. "Okay, that's eighty-seven dollars. Can you two put up thirteen dollars?"

Zack was stunned, "A hundred dollars? That's awfully expensive. It's not one of those exotic chickens from the Orient, is it?"

Chow shook his head, "No, of course not, you said he likes white meat, this is a domestic chicken."

Jason rubbed his face. He had a feeling that he was missing a vital piece of information, but he couldn't figure out what it was. Chow and Li were just a couple of harmless kids, so maybe they have weird and expensive taste in chicken, but that's not a crime. After all Billy only turns sixteen once, and he did offer to help put in the difference, " Zack and I can come up with the other thirteen dollars. I'm sure Billy will be very thankful of his…unusual present."

_~End flashback~_

By now, Trini and Kimberly were huddled together, laughing so hard that the counter they were leaning on was probably the only thing that was holding them up. "I can't believe Billy's first sexual experience was with a hooker because Jason messed up on the translation."

"And I can't believe Jason and Zack helped to pay for it," added Trini.

A red-faced Jason stammered, "How…how was I do know there were more than one meaning for the word? Remember, Trini? Ms. Yu only told us that 'gai' means chicken."

Kimberly continued to laugh almost hysterically, "at least they understood Zack well enough to get him 'white meat' with a great pair of breasts, double Ds, I believe."

Zack managed to control his laughter and pointed out, "Well, our boy genius there didn't return his gift, did he?"

Now it was Billy's turn to be all red-faced and lost for words, "I…I didn't know she was a…I…I tried to, but she wouldn't leave."

Kimberly continued to smirk, "So she was a take charge kind of chicken?"

"She…it would be rude and…oh God." Billy dropped the biscuits on the counter and quickly left the kitchen.

Jason turned the two girls who were still laughing loudly, "Oh, so now you two think it's funny. At the time, it was like we committed all seven of the seven sins." Jason shook his head. "Trini read me the riot act and even threatened to tell my mom, something about luring an innocent boy into debauchery."

"You hired a hooker!" replied Trini indignantly. "Prostitution is illegal is all fifty states."

"I didn't hire anybody! I thought we were buying a chicken! You know I wouldn't have let them do it had I known what they were really saying."

"You didn't think a hundred dollars for a chicken was kind of odd?" challenged Trini.

"Of course I did. But it was Chow and Li, they were the oddest of all oddballs."

"Hey, you guys never did tell us how you girls found out. I know Jason and I never dared to even breathe one word about it," interrupted Zack. Jason and Trini were still taking tentative baby steps, a little bickering was fine, but a knocked down, drag out fight at this point would be a huge set back.

Kimberly wrinkled her nose in distaste, "it was Billy. He was acting all moony eyed afterwards. You two were acting all secretive and guilty and shit, so I knew something must have been up."

"Billy just came out and confessed?"

"No, but then Chow and Li came bouncing around and they were having all these secret chats with Billy, and that boy looked as remorseful as hell. So, I started badgering him to tell me what happened. You know Billy, lying isn't exactly his strength. He kept repeating: I can't tell you, I can't tell you and Oh God, Oh God, I'm a reprobate, which I had to ask Trini for the explanation. But I didn't give up and I just followed him everywhere until he broke down and revealed his big, dirty secret." Kim said with a pleased smile. "Oh, and it was hilarious when Trini just marched right up to him and demanded that he goes to the clinic for the HIV test."

Jason grinned salaciously, "we were promised a disease free chicken."

Trini gave him a dirty look, and Jason caved. "Alright, I'm sorry. I really did feel bad about the whole thing for a long time, but that was years ago. And Billy wasn't traumatized or anything. I can't spend the rest of my life apologizing over something that was lost in translation. Yeah, we screwed up, but come on, Tri, you do know that Billy could have just said no."

"Billy didn't know she was a prostitute until afterwards. He was a sixteen year old boy with his hormones going all over the place, and a pretty girl just threw herself at him." Trini shook her head, "I know we were laughing just now, but I actually am still grossed out over the whole thing."

Jason smiled apologetically, "Sorry. Never again, I promise."

Zack nodded his head, "Right, never again. Now, girls, while you two are sitting on you high horses, I just want to remind you ladies that Jason and I helped to get him a gift which I'm certain Billy had fun opening and enjoyed playing with. What did you two get him, aside from a HIV test?"

**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

December 23, 2005

South Lake Tahoe, NV

Tommy and his fiancée, Kelly, arrived while the gang was still out on the slope. They came into the house to find the two sitting comfortably in the living room watching TV with a plate of Margie's homemade cookies sitting on the coffee table and the two sets of matching luggage sitting on the floor.

Always the gracious host, Billy immediately apologized. "Tommy, hey, I'm so sorry, but we weren't expecting you guys until tomorrow. You should have called."

Tommy shrugged, "No problem, bro. I got everything taken care of earlier than I thought, and Kelly was anxious to come meet everyone. We've only been here for about an hour. Your housekeeper was here and told us you guys were out skiing. She let us in and made sure we were comfortable. I figured that you guys would be back soon."

After the greetings and introductions were over, Billy quickly took charge and picked up the two garment bags while Jason and Zack volunteered to help with carrying the rest of the luggage, "let's get you guys settled in. We still have a couple of empty guest rooms, you guys can check them both out and see which one you prefer." He waited until Tommy and Kelly had headed over to the stairs and then quietly turned to Kimberly, "Kim, can you go check with Margie, make sure she made enough food for everybody?"

Kimberly just rolled her eyes and Trini grinned and pulled her into the kitchen.

"Hi Margie," Trini called out cheerfully. "What are you making? It smells delicious."

"It's just an eggplant bake, Ms. Trini." Margie smiled. "And I have also made some fried chicken and mashed potato with string beans and carrots. I'm just finishing up, and then I'll setup the table and get out of here unless Mr. Cranston would like me to stay and serve dinner."

"Don't be silly, Margie. Kim and I can setup the table and we can serve ourselves. Thank you so much for making dinner."

"It's my job, Ms. Trini, and I'm glad to help put some meat on those bones of yours."

Kim leaned against the counter and smiled, "Hey, Margie, since Tommy forgets that he wasn't supposed to arrive until tomorrow, do you think you can find it in your heart to feed him too?"

"No worries, Ms. Kim, I've made plenty, enough to feed everyone."

Trini looked outside, it was getting dark even though it was only a little after five in the afternoon. "Margie, why don't you go on home? I don't want you driving in the dark, especially when it's snowing."

"Ms. Trini, you don't have to worry about me. I lived in this area all my life. The bake isn't going to be ready for another fifteen minutes."

"Margie, Kim and I might not be able to cook, but we can still take a pan out of the oven. You've done enough for us already. I want you to go put on your coat and go home." Trini insisted.

The two girls waited until Margie had left and then started to pull down plates, glasses, and utensils and went into the dinning room.

Kimberly set down the dinner plates, "he's slipping, isn't he? He used to date supermodels, this one looks like a streetwalker."

Trini shrugged; even she would have to agree that Kelly was a bit of a departure from Tommy's normal girlfriends. While all of Tommy's past fiancées had been tall, fair, beautiful, and high maintenance, Kelly was short, small, with shoulder length dark brown hair. She appeared friendly but guarded. Instead of expensive designer wears, Kelly was dressed in a low cut sweater and jeans, although both items appeared to be at least a size too small.

"Kim, be nice."

"That was nice. Seriously, can those clothes get any tighter? If she bends over, her pants will split open. Where does she shop? Hookers R Us? If that sweater cuts any lower, she mind as well not wear anything. And those boobs that she was flashing everyone? Fake!" Kimberly set down the serving utensils while she continued to rant, "And did you see those shoes? How the hell does she walk around in those four-inch heels and not fall flat on her ass?"

Trini refrained from reminding Kimberly that Kim herself had plenty of shoes like those, "give her a break, Kim. So she likes to dress a little sexier, it's not a crime."

"Sexy?" Kim snorted. "If you go look up trailer trash in the dictionary, I'm sure you'll find a picture of her."

"Why are you letting her get to you like this?"

"There's something about her that just smells funky, and I'm not talking about that cheap perfume that she drowns herself in."

"It's not a crime to want to smell nice," said Trini diplomatically.

"You don't even wear perfume and you always smell nice." When Trini looked slightly uncomfortable, Kimberly just waved her hand, "stop trying to be coy. You know that Jason is constantly sniffing around you."

"Okay, leave me out of this." Trini stepped closer to Kim and then asked gently, "are you okay with this? Being here with them?"

Kim sighed, "Trying to maintain a friendship with an ex really sucks, doesn't it? We have had a few get-to-gathers over the years, and it's always uncomfortable. It' not like I'm still in love with Tommy, but he was my first love, and it's hard to just be friends when we have so much history. Especially when his girlfriend in around, then things are ten times more complicated. Am I being pathetic? I mean I know Tommy and I were done before I even left for Florida, but I can't help but compare myself with his girlfriends. Is that normal?"

"I think so. I know I did when I met Emily."

"I've never really liked any of his girlfriends, I means that's only natural, right?" When Trini nodded sympathetically, Kimberly continued, "but that thing that showed up this afternoon, there's just something wrong with her. She's not just superficial like Tommy's other girlfriends. There's an evil aura surrounding her."

"Evil aura?" Trini bit her lip and swallowed what she really wanted to say; instead, "her name is Kelly."

Kim shrugged, "I rather call her that thing. I would rather call her a lot of other things, but I'm trying to be nice."

"Kim, she's just a girl who wants to spend Christmas with her fiancé in beautiful Lake Tahoe."

"You are so gullible. She didn't just come with Tommy to play in the snow and to meet his high school friends. She has an agenda; I can feel it."

"Okay, Madame Psychic, what is her agenda?" Trini crossed her arms and asked a bit impatiently.

"I don't know. Yet. But she has one!" Kimberly insisted, stomping her foot in agitation.

"Kimberly, if you don't drop this, everyone is going to think that you are still carrying a torch for Tommy. Is that what you want?"

"Oh, Hell no! I dumped his ass years ago, and I have never regretted it."

"Then stop trying to find faults with his fiancé. Get to know her. She could be a very nice girl."

"Or she could be a black widow who's hoping to marry Tommy and then murders him!"

"Sure, and she will inherit all of his dirty laundry and his six pairs of unmatched socks."

"Insurance! Tommy was a racecar driver. Don't they carry multi-million dollar policies?"

"Was, Kim, was. I doubt that his sponsors are willing to continue payments for a college student studying Paleontology."

"Doesn't paleontologist require insurance?"

Trini scowled, "Okay, you can continue to act this way and Tommy and Kelly are just going to think you are jealous. Your choice."

Kimberly rolled her eyes, "why do you always have to be so reasonable? Why can't you just support my insanity every once in a while?"

"Because I am your best friend, and it's my job to make sure you don't act insane in front of…that thing."

**

Kelly took a sip of her white wine, snuggled against Tommy, and settled down comfortably. "That dinner was delicious. I keep eating like this, and I am gonna need new clothes."

Kimberly opened her mouth then closed it quickly when she noticed Trini glaring at her from across the room.

Billy nodded, "Margie is an excellent cook. I am very lucky to have her and her husband overseeing things for me."

"Well, I'm sure they are well compensated," Kelly smiled. "So, what's on the agenda tonight? I heard the MontBleu has this awesome night club—"

Kimberly interrupted, "Well, since this is somewhat of a reunion for most of us, we really just want to hang out and catch up."

"I'm sorry this isn't terribly exciting," apologized Billy. "Why don't I make reservation for dinner at the Ciera tomorrow night, and then we can either go to a show or if Kelly would prefer the Opal Lounge."

Tommy shook his head, "Don't worry about it, man. Kelly isn't bored, she's as eager as I to hear from each and everyone of you what you had been up to since the last time we met."

Kelly smiled, "I wasn't complaining, really. Tommy told me all these interesting stories about you guys and I've always wanted to match the face with his stories."

Kim shook her head, "We already talked about us the first night we were here. It wasn't terribly interesting. Let's talk about you guys. Kelly, what do you do?" _~When you are not standing at the corner of Sunset Blvd.~_

Kelly looked at Kimberly, her expression slightly calculating, "I am just a boring antique dealer. You don't want to hear about me." She looked around the room and zeroed in on Jason. "We have a war hero among us, I think it would be much more interesting to hear from Jason."

Jason was noticeably uncomfortable, "er…there's not much to tell. I served a few years in the Navy, followed orders, that's pretty much it." Taking a deep breath, "antique dealer, huh? That's unusual."_ ~Please don't ask me any more questions. I just want to sit here and stare at Trini. God, she smells nice.~_

Kelly smiled and sat up, pushing herself away from Tommy, "I was an antique dealer. Right now, I'm just focusing on helping Tommy get back into racing."

Jason looked up at Tommy in surprise, "You are going back to racing cars? What happened to Paleontology?"

Tommy nodded happily, "Yeah, Paleontology isn't really not my thing. I must have been suffering from amnesia when I gave up racing and started studying fossils. It took Kelly to make me realize that my first love is still racing."

_~I know it, I know it, I know it! ~_ Kimberly jumped up and stomped over to Trini, kicking her in the shin. Trini glowered at Kim and the former pink ranger just yanked her out of her seat, "Trini and I are going to go make some popcorn."

Once inside the kitchen, Kim squealed, "I told you she was after his insurance money. And did you see how she came onto Jason? Right in front of her own fiancé!"

Trini rubbed both hands up and down her face, "Kimberly! Stop it. Let it go!" Pulling out a bag of popcorn from one of the cupboard and tossing it into the microwave, "you are going to go back out there and act like a matured, civilized, competent woman and not some screaming banshee, got it?"

"I don't trust her," insisted Kim. "People with shifty little eyes like hers are always up to no good."

Trini just grabbed a big bowl out of the cupboard and set it down on the counter. She turned her attention to the microwave and totally ignored Kim.

"Trini?"

Trini just crossed her arms and remained silent.

"Trini!"

Trini started the countdown on the microwave.

"TRINI KWAN!"

The microwave dinged, and still ignoring Kimberly, Trini took the bag out and dumped the popcorn into the bowl. She tossed the empty bag into the trash and turned to grab the bowl, and that's when Kim grabbed her. "She came onto to Jason, don't you care? She is already setting him up as her next mark and Tommy is still alive."

Trini slammed the bowl down a little harder than necessary; she ran a frustrated hand through her hair, "Kim, she asked Jason one simple question."

"Did you see how she looked at him? Like he was the main dish of a nine course dinner!"

Trini grimaced a little but managed to shrug it off. "It's Jason. People are going to look."

"But she wasn't just looking like you and I would when a Greek God walks by. I tell you she's going to go after him…right after she kills Tommy."

"Kimberly, get over your obsession with killing Tommy. Is there something I should know? I'm beginning to think you are projecting. Kelly is planning to marry him, but with Tommy's track record, even that's debatable."

Kimberly sulked, "you are going to be sorry, Trini, when she runs off with Jason."

"If she were the black widow, shouldn't she be setting her sight on Billy, you know, the billionaire instead of the unemployed ex Navy Seal?"

Kim frowned, "Maybe she's blinded by Jason's good looks and decided that she'll save Billy for afterwards."

Trini rubbed her temple tiredly, "After she marries and then kills Tommy, seduces and then kills off Jason, collects whatever meager benefits he gets from the military and then…oh wait, there's still Zack. Do you think she'll go after him before or after Billy?"

"You are not going to take me seriously, are you?" demanded Kim. "You can't deny that she was coming on to Jason."

"Girls, heck, even guys, have been coming on to Jason for as long as I have known him. It's like the freaking law of the universe or something. And if Jason is interested in…that thing, than he deserves to be murdered for his military benefits." Once again, she grabbed the bowl and then flounced out of the kitchen.

**

Back in the living room, Kelly stood and started to walk around the room, admiring the decorations, "this place is so gorgeous." She looked into the recreation room and gave out a cry of delight, "what a beautiful pool table!"

Billy nodded, "thank you. Please feel free if you would like to play a game."

Kelly shook her head regretfully as she picked up a pool stick and ran her fingers down it slowly, "I don't know how to play. Unless someone wants to teach me?"

Tommy stood up, "sure, babe, but I thought you know how to play. Didn't I meet you in that bar down in Miami playing pool?"

Kelly looked annoyed, "yeah, but you know I would really like to improve my game. Jason, you looked like some one who knows his way around the pool table. Want to give me a few pointers?"

Jason gulped, "sorry, Kelly. Haven't played in years. Tommy is real good, thou."

Zack smirked and whispered, "I thought you told me that playing pool was the only thing you guys get to do on your downtime, not to mention you beat the pants off of everybody last night."

Jason just glared at him and refused to answer.

Zack continued to grin as Kelly leaned against the doorway while Tommy racked up the table, "come on, Jason, come play with us. We'll need another player if Tommy is going to be busy helping me. I promise it'll be fun."

"Unbelievable! I think she's offering a threesome," snickered Zack as quietly as he could.

Jason literally tossed Zack off his seat and stood up at the same time, "Zack can play with you guys. I'm going to go help the girls with the popcorn."

Jason turned toward the kitchen just in time to see Trini standing there with the bowl of popcorn in the hands. It was difficult to know what she was thinking considering she had that blank look in her eyes. _~Oh God, Oh God, please don't be mad. If Tommy's skanky girlfriend fucks this up for me, I'm so going to kill both of them.~_

Noticing that Jason appeared frozen in place, Zack turned and then quickly shook his head at Trini, "Trini, it's not what you thi—"

Trini held up one hand to stop whatever Zack was going to say, and then slowly she walked across the room and shoved the bowl of popcorn at Zack. She turned toward Jason and backed him up against the wall. Jason swallowed nervously, "Trini, honey, I swear, I didn't do anything."

That blank look was gone as Trini's dark eyes twinkled, "I know," and then she grabbed his head, pulled him down and kissed him, and it wasn't a two seconds peck on the lips, it was slow, long, open mouthed, tongue went searching kind of kiss. Everyone could hear Jason sighed in relief as he wrapped his arms around Trini and pulled her closer.

Zack chuckled and watched as Kelly huffed and walked into the game room, pulling Tommy behind her.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

December 24, 2005

South Lake Tahoe, NV

Trini woke, rolled over and picked up her watch on the nightstand, 5:58; too early for anyone to be up, except maybe Jason. Trini grinned happily as she clutched a pillow to her chest; she had pretty much publicly branded Jason as hers last night. And instead of feeling foolish or embarrassed, she felt elated, especially since Jason couldn't stop grinning like a happy fool for the rest of the night. While Trini was never one for public display, she saw the panicked look in Jason's eyes, and she knew where the blame should truly be laid. Kissing Jason was due partly to reassure him, partly to get Kelly to back the Hell off, but mostly it was simply because she wanted to let him know she trusted him. He was her Jason. Other women can look and admire all they want, but he belongs with her. One thing that hasn't changed even after all these years was Trini's unquestionable trust in Jason, and she had never regretted trusting him. On her honest days, Trini could truthfully admit that their breakup was never about him; it was about her. It was her fear of looking back one day and regretting that she didn't take the time to find herself. Over the last seven years, Trini had found herself, and she liked the strong, independent, confident young woman that she had become. But that young woman also had a void in her heart, and Trini knew without a doubt that the only person who could fill that void and completes her was Jason. Sighing, she rolled over again and looked out the balcony window. She grinned as she saw that it was snowing lightly. Slipping out of bed, she walked over and pushed over the balcony door, stepping outside in her flannel pajamas and nothing else. Leaning over the railing, she stuck her hand out and watched as snowflakes fell on her open palm and then slipped through her long, slender fingers.

Jason woke, rolled over and picked up his watch on the nightstand, 5:59. The years in the Navy had gotten him into the habit of always waking up before dawn. Sliding his feet onto the thick, lush carpet, Jason decided to get up and go make coffee. After all, his girl was also an early riser and an avid coffee drinker. He smiled as he thought of Trini. She had surprised him last night. When he had turned around and saw her standing there, his heart had dropped like a ton of bricks. After all these years of separation, they were finally heading toward the same place again. The last couple of days had seen them rebuilding their friendship, and slowly moving toward a relationship. Things were looking pretty good for them, but Jason knew they were still pretty fragile. One wrong move could easily set them back again. The last thing he needed was for some stupid misunderstanding to impair their growth. Luckily, Trini trusted him, and he vowed to never betray that trust. He was heading to the bathroom to get ready for the day when he saw that it was snowing. Taking a detour, he unlocked the balcony door and stepped outside. The rush of cold air made him shiver slightly, but the air felt so crisp and clean, and he was determined to at least take a few deep breaths. Soft, clear, tingling laughter drifted toward him, he turned his head and looked over to his right, and there she was, his angel leaning out and playing with the falling snowflakes two balconies down. Jason laughed and then whispered, "hey"

The single word traveled through the cold, freezing wind, and Trini turned and beamed as she waved and mouthed "hey."

Jason put up both hands, showing ten fingers, silently mouthed "ten minutes" and then pointed his index finger downward.

Trini raised her eyebrow and mouthed, "kitchen?"

Jason nodded and they grinned at each other before heading back into their warm bedrooms.

Exactly ten minutes later, Trini quietly ran down the stairs in a red and black plaid shirt and black jeans. She headed straight for the kitchen and found Jason taking out a coffee filter. Her first thought was to walk into his arms, but last night bravado had left her and her natural shyness returned. She hesitated and stayed just inside the doorway, "hi."

Jason smiled, saw the hesitation in her eyes and stepped forward. He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her left ear and rubbed his thumb along her cheekbone, and then he leaned down and kissed her.

It was a sweet kiss, slow, gentle and loving. Trini sighed and wrapped her arms around his neck.

When they finally broke apart, Jason smiled, "hi."

Trini smiled, blushing slightly, "how are you?"

"Good," answered Jason. He took hold of her hand and they walked over to the sink together. "Come keep me company while I make coffee."

Trini nodded but instead of just standing idly, she opened up the dishwasher and started to put everything away. After starting the percolator, Jason stepped over to help her.

"What are we doing today?"

Jason shrugged, "I don't know. I know Billy was rambling about stuff, but I wasn't paying attention."

"And why weren't you paying attention?"

Jason smiled at her tenderly, letting her know that she was the reason for his inability to pay attention to anyone else. "I think it has something to do with you sitting next to me." Holding out both hands, "Trini, Billy, Trini, Billy, no contest."

Trini bit her lip, "Jason, are we moving too fast?"

Jason looked surprised, "No, but we can slow down if you want, anything you want, Trini."

"I think I made it pretty clear what I want, but right now I think I want to go check on Charlie." Trini said.

Jason tilted his head to one side, "Charlie?"

"Uh-huh." Trini answered as she walked out to the foyer and grabbed her jacket off the coat rack. Looking back at Jason with an impish grin, she punched in the code to disable the alarm.

Jason quickly put on his jacket and followed her outside, "Who's Charlie?"

Trini turned and smiled happily at him, "Charlie is our snow baby."

Jason chuckled as she walked over to the snowman that they built two days ago.

Trini reached out and retied the scarf around the snowman and pulled the beanie down to make sure it was secured.

"You named our baby without me?" Jason pouted.

"You can name our baby girl," teased Trini, and then her face turned bright red when she realized what she had said.

Jason's heart soared, but he had promised himself a million times that he wasn't going to rush it. He was letting her set the pace, and last night she had finally broken through those baby steps and had taken a giant leap. So, as much as he would love to talk about their baby girl, he wasn't going to give her any reason to retreat. He smiled at her and then focus his attention on their snowman, "Why Charlie?"

Trini sighed in relief, then stared at him like it should have been obvious, "look at that face, doesn't he look like a Charlie?"

Jason laughed and hugged her to him, "of course he does." They stood watching as the snow continued to fall on Charlie.

By the time the rest of the gang started to wake up, there was a miniature replica of Charlie, minus the beanie and scarf, on the front lawn. Jason had a fresh pot of coffee percolating and Trini had given up on the lumpy mess that was supposed to be pancakes.

"God, I'm hopeless!" Trini said in disgust. "I know I'm not a cook, but how does someone mess up pancakes?"

"It's okay, sweetie," Jason said as he fiddled with the batter. "It's a little too thick, that's all. It's fixable."

"I think it's a lost cause."

"Alright, why don't we run down to the store and pickup some bagels?"

Trini nodded, "let me just dump this mess and then we—"

Tommy walked in, "good morning."

"Hi Tommy."

"Hey, bro, there's coffee in the pot," Jason said, pointing to the coffeemaker. "Trini and I are just going to run down to the store and pickup some bagels, unless you rather have something else."

"That's fine, but Trini, do you mind if I go with Jase?"

Trini's brow furrowed, "aren't you going to wait for Kelly?" _~Please don't run off and leave me to deal with…that thing.~_

Tommy just shook his head dismissively, "Kelly was just getting up when I came down. She won't be ready for at least another an hour. We'll be back before then." Looking a little apologetic, "I really need to speak with Jason."

Jason frowned but didn't say anything and Trini just shrugged, "okay. See you guys later."

Jason had just turned down the driveway when Tommy asked conversationally, "so, you and Trini are back together?"

Jason smiled slightly, "I think so. We are not…quite there yet, but we are working on it."

"Well, you two looked pretty damn close from what I could see last night." Tommy said. "I really am happy for you, bro. I know Trini is the girl that got away, but it looks like you have gotten her back. You look happier than I have seen in a long time, I always felt like it was partially my fault for asking you to come back to Angel Grove. I'm glad you are finally happy again. Who knows? Maybe you'll even be able to hold on to her this time."

"Yeah, I don't mind admitting that Trini makes me happy, and I have no intention of letting her get away," grinned Jason.

"So, you really think you guys could make it this time?"

"I hope so. I've never stopped loving her, and I'm going to do whatever I need to do to keep her in my life."

"That's great," Tommy shifted in his seat, looking slightly awkward, "Listen, I…er…want to apologize for last night. I know Kelly was a little out of line, but she didn't mean anything by it. It's just the way she is. Kelly is a big flirt. I hope she didn't cause any trouble for you and Trini."

"I'll be real honest with you, Tommy. If Trini had walked out last night, you and I would not be sitting in the same car right now. I'm not going to pass judgment on your fiancée. After all, I really don't know her. If she makes you happy, and you don't have a problem with her…flirting, then…it's your relationship, Tommy."

"I love Kelly, at least I think I do. We are engaged. But sometimes, it does get tiring to always pretend that it doesn't bother me when she's literally hitting on someone else, right in front of me."

"Why don't you just tell her to knock it off?"

"If that was Trini, would you say anything?"

Jason frowned, "I'm sorry, bro, but I just can't picture Trini behaving like that. She's too straightforward to be so…well, I really don't want to criticize your fiancée. However, if she's hurting you, which I think she is, then I think you should tell her exactly how you feel."

Tommy sighed, "To be honest, I'm not even sure how we've gotten engaged so quickly."

"What do you mean?" asked Jason.

"Well, I only met her eight weeks ago."

"Really? When did you guys get engaged?"

"About a month ago," confessed Tommy, looking uncomfortable.

"That is kind of fast, but you just said you love her, so—"

Tommy cut in, "it wasn't even my idea."

"Huh?"

"Kelly was…she was supposed to be just a one-night stand. I mean I liked her, a lot, and she's attractive, but I didn't plan on actually having a real relationship with anyone at that point in my life." Tommy said. "I met her one night in a bar. We had a couple of drinks, played a game of pool, and I invited her home."

"Okay," said Jason. What else could he have said? He had spent four years in the military and had heard that horn dog speech too many times to count. "Erm, so what changed?"

"When she left the next day, I really thought I would never see her again, but she showed up a couple of nights later and well…you know…and the next thing I know, we were dating. I was thinking about going back to racing and she just stepped right in, helping me look for sponsors and introducing me to different mechanics. She acted like my partner, and everyone thought we were a team. Then one night she was at my place when Billy called, inviting me to come up to spend Christmas with you guys, and bam, we were engaged."

Jason turned the car into the parking lot and pulled up in front of a bakery, "come on, man, you must have proposed, right? Or were you too shit-faced at the time?"

"No, that's the thing, I was perfectly sober. She was looking through my photo album and asking questions about you guys. I have photos of us from high school all over my apartment. Come to think of it, she was really interested in you guys that morning after our first night together. Anyway, after I got off the phone with Billy, she started questioning me about you guys, why none of you had ever gotten married. I made some dumb jokes about summer brides and the next thing I know she threw herself at me and said of course she would loved to be married during summer."

Jason cut the engine but made no move to get out of the car, "why didn't you just tell her that wasn't a proposal. You were too young, not ready, and that would have been the truth."

"I started to, really, I did, but then she started to cry and said she was so sorry and embarrassed that she misunderstood, and I felt so bad I just told her of course I wanted to marry her."

Jason took a deep breath, "Bro, I hate to say this, but I think she played you."

**

Trini had just dumped the rest of the batter into the garbage and was in the process of tidying up the kitchen when Kelly rushed in carrying her purse. Although she appeared as if she were dressed to go out in a pair of skintight jeans, a low cut T-shirt, a short, tight leather jacket, and a pair of ridiculously high heel boots, her hair was a mess and she wasn't wearing any makeup. _~Wow, that makeup sure did hide a lot. ~_ Trini thought then quickly chastised herself for being catty. Strangely, without the heavy eye makeup and the six layers of foundation, there was something familiar about Kelly, but Trini just couldn't put her finger on it.

Giving herself a mental shrug, Trini offered, "Tommy went with Jason to the store. He'll be back soon."

"I know," Kelly fidgeted. "Look, Trini, I'm sorry about last night. I wasn't hitting on Jason. I was just being friendly. Sometimes I have trouble knowing the right etiquette. I just want you guys to like me, that's all."

"It's okay."

"I don't want to cause any trouble."

Trini did not like Kelly, no question there. However, Kelly was Tommy's fiancée, and if there was one thing Trini Kwan refused to do, it was to cause trouble for her friends. "You didn't."

"Oh, good." Kelly looked around nervously, "where's everyone else?"

Trini looked at the clock, 7:48. "I hear movements, so I guess they should be down soon. Do you want some coffee?"

Kelly shook her head, "Listen, Trini, I really need to ask a huge favor. I need a ride to Reno."

"What?"

"I ordered this really cool model sports car for Tommy. It's a collector's item, but it's in this little shop in Reno. The guy said they are only staying open until noon today. So, I need to go pick it up. I can't very well ask Tommy to go with me to pick up his gift, so could you please take me?"

"I don't understand. You bought him a gift that you have to go pickup in Reno? Why didn't you just have it shipped?"

Kelly gave a short laugh, "It was last minute and well, I've always been hopeless when it comes to Geography, I didn't realize it would take over an hour to get to Reno from here."

"Kelly, I don't know—"

"Please Trini, if we leave now, we can be back before noon."

"At least let's wait until the guys get back," suggested Trini.

Kelly shook her head vigorously, "Tommy would demand to know, and I really want it to be a surprise. Please, Trini."

Trini sighed, "I'll run upstairs and tell Kim—"

"You don't want to interrupt Kimberly. She's probably changing or something. Why don't you just leave them a note and you can call them on the way."

Not in the mood to argue, Trini quickly scribbled a short note and stuck it onto the refrigerator. "Alright, let's just get out of here. I suppose the quicker we leave, the quicker we would be back."

Kelly watched as Trini walked out ahead of her. Quickly, she snatched the note off the refrigerator and stuffed it into her purse. _~ Sucker! ~_


	13. Chapter 13

Happy New Year!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

* * *

Chapter 13

Trini had only been on the road for about ten minutes when Kelly requested for a coffee stop. "Can you just pull over to Starbucks? I promise I will be real quick."

Trini sighed, but what was five more minutes. Besides, she could use the time to call Jason.

As soon as they stepped out of the car, Trini reached into the pocket of her jeans for her phone. But before she had a chance to make the call, "Oh, Trini, can I borrow your phone? I left mine at the house."

"I was just going to call Jason," said Trini, still holding onto her cell phone.

"Please. I just want to let Tommy know I didn't disappear. The boy is so protective of me." Kelly giggled.

Trini sighed, but a lifetime of good manners dictated that she be gracious and helpful. With a bit of reluctance, she handed her phone over to Kelly, who took the phone, turned around and took a couple of steps away from Trini but still close enough for Trini to hear her end of the conversation, "Tommy, Hi baby, I'm with Trini."

"…"

"We're going to Reno to pick up something."

"…"

"It's a surprise, you like surprises, right?"

"…"

Kelly giggled, "No, it isn't anything naughty."

"…"

More giggles, "You're such a bad boy. I'm gonna have to punish you."

"…"

Kelly sniggered, "ooh, I might just have to introduce you to my new leather whip."

Trini was starting to look slightly green.

"…"

"Stop it, we are embarrassing poor Trini," she looked over her shoulder and smirked at Trini, "No, of course I'm not telling you what we are picking up. Tell Jason not to worry, Trini is safe with me."

"Kelly, let me talk to—"

Kelly turned around and Trini watched her hit the end button, "sorry, Jason is busy ordering food. Let's go inside. I really need a cup of coffee."

"Okay, just give me back my—"

"Oh, Trini, look, your tire looks kind of flat" Kelly said, pointing to the rear tire on the passenger side.

"What? My tire?" Trini asked and walked around to check on the tire in question. "It's fine."

"Are you sure? Because I'm telling you it looks flat."

"And I'm telling you it looks fine." Trini snapped.

"I once had a blowout on the highway. It was horrible. I think you should have it checked out. Even if there's nothing wrong, at least you'll be able to shut me up. Otherwise, I'll likely be bitching about it all the way to Reno and back."

_~How the hell does Tommy put up with her? ~_

"Look, you look like one of those people who is always prepared, so I'm sure you have one of those tire pressure gauge thingie. If not, the gas station is just right over there. You go check your tires and I'll just go in and grab a cup of coffee."

_~The sooner we get to Reno, the sooner we'll be back, and the sooner I can be Kelly free. ~ "_Fine." Trini said shortly and had already popped the trunk and pulled out her emergency repair tool kit before Kelly even made it inside Starbucks.

After checking all four tires and arriving with the same conclusion as she had before, Trini walked inside Starbucks and saw that Kelly was standing in front of the counter fixing her coffee. "The tires are fine, all four of them. I'm just going to go wash my hands, and then we can go."

"Oh, goodie."

When Trini came out from the bathroom, Kelly was sitting by the door. She jumped up and handed Trini a cup, "here, I know you already had coffee, so I got you a hot chocolate."

"Er…thanks, but you really didn't have to."

"Well, I got it for you, so you better drink it."

Trini sighed silently and took a sip of the hot chocolate. It was sweet with a slightly distinctive but unfamiliar flavor to it. Trini shrugged mentally, Starbucks always had these different flavored drinks over the holidays. She took another sip and missed the smirk on Kelly's face as the shorter woman picked up her own coffee cup, and the two girls headed out the door.

Trini was just getting ready to get into the car when Kelly placed a hand on her elbow, "Hey, you never did get to speak with Jason earlier. Why don't you let me drive while you give him a call?"

"No offense, Kelly, but you told me you weren't good with Geography. Do you even know how to get to Reno from here?"

"It's only until you get off the phone. Unless you plan on having phone sex, you'll know if I'm going the wrong way. But if you plan on having phone sex, I plan to listen." Kelly giggled girlishly, "I plan to participate," taking the keys out of Trini's hand, who was standing there momentarily stunned with her mouth hanging opened slightly, "I was only kidding. Come on, I'm a good driver, don't worry."

Trini closed her mouth but decided to let it go. It would seem churlish to insist when all she really wanted was to get this farce of a trip over and done with, so she walked around the hood of her car and got into the passenger seat. Once seated and buckled, Kelly quickly drove out of the parking lot and onto the highway. Trini stuck her hand into her jeans pocket and then remembered that Kelly still had her phone, "Kelly, I need my phone."

Kelly slapped her hand on her forehead, "Oh, God, I forgot I have your cell phone in my purse, and I put my purse in the trunk."

"When did put your purse in the trunk?"

"Just now, you must have been distracted by the thoughts of phone sex and Jason," sneered Kelly. "I dropped it inside the trunk when I realized you were going to let me drive. It gets in the way when I leave it on the floor."

"You could have just toss it on the backseat. What if you get stopped?"

Kelly just shrugged, "If I get stopped, it wouldn't be the first time. I've never had a ticket. It's all a game, Trini. Just flash them a smile and a bit of cleavage, and you are home free."

Trini sighed in annoyance, "I'm sorry, Kelly, but you need to pull over. I need my phone."

Kelly snickered, but she continued to drive. "You left them a note. You are not a child, Trini. You don't have to report back to mommy every five minutes."

Trini rubbed her eyes, feeling a headache coming on.

"What's the matter, Trini, not feeling well?" Kelly asked, but her voice sounded a little off.

Trini shook her head, trying to shake off the weariness that she was feeling. "I'm okay."

"Why don't you take a nap? We'll be there soon."

Trini frowned as she looked out the window. When had they gotten off the highway? They were driving on a deserted narrow back road. "Where are you going?"

Kelly smiled in self-satisfaction, "somewhere where you wouldn't be able to cause me any more troubles."

Trini looked at Kelly, and then blinked rapidly. There seemed to a multiple of Kellys swimming before her eyes. She tried to lift her hand to her temple, but it felt too heavy and all she was capable of doing was to slide down in her seat. Her eyes landed on the coffee cups, "What did you put in my hot chocolate?"

"Don't worry, it isn't going to kill you. Stop fighting it. Just close your eyes."

Trini bit down hard on her lip, but her eyes refused to stay open. Tried as she might, she soon lost the battle as her eyes closed and she fell back against the seat.

**

Jason and Tommy came in with a box of bagels and fresh orange juice to find Zack, Kimberly, and Billy sitting by the kitchen island drinking coffee. "Where are Trini and Kelly? Aren't they with you guys?" Kimberly asked.

"Kelly is probably still in her room. She takes even longer than Kim to get ready in the morning," Tommy said.

Kimberly rolled her eyes, "well, I do not smell any stench, so I guess your precious Kelly is not in the house."

Tommy's mouth tightened in anger, and Billy intercepted, "Kim, now is not the time."

"Fine, no, genius, she's not in the house, and neither is Trini. We thought you guys all left together."

"No, we left on our own," frowning, Jason stepped outside but came back in immediately. "Trini's car is gone. You think maybe she and Kelly went off somewhere together?"

Zack shook his head, "I don't see those two bonding, but maybe they need to pickup something before the store closes. It is Christmas Eve."

"I know Trini wanted to get something for Margie," added Kim.

Jason frowned and pulled out his cell phone. The gang gathered and waited, "she's not picking up. It went to voicemail. Tommy, can you try Kelly?"

Tommy nodded and quickly made the call, and they could all hear the sound of a phone ringing in the room. Following the sound, Jason picked up a little silver cell phone sitting on the counter below the cupboards. "Kelly must have forgotten to take her phone with her."

"Hey, maybe they just went off…to clear the air," suggested Billy. "Things were kind of tense between them last night."

Jason shook his head, "Trini would have left a note. I know her." He checked his phone log quickly, "At the very least, she would have left me a text message."

Kimberly was starting to look worried, "If it were just that skank, I would have clapped and say good riddence, but she got Trini with her, then—"

"Look, guys, let's not jump to conclusion. I'm sure they are both fine. So, Trini is not answering her phone, maybe she just didn't hear it ring. And if they didn't leave a note, well, I don't know about Kelly, but Trini has been on her own for a long time. Unless you are living with someone, sometimes you don't think about stuff like that." Billy said, "They are both grownups and I'm sure they'll be back soon. Come on, the bagels look really good."

Jason looked unconvinced, but he nodded.

An hour and fifteen minutes and at least half a dozen calls later, Tommy was no longer calm and Jason was almost frantic, "Where the Hell are they?"

Even Billy was starting to look worried, "I'm going to go make a couple of calls."

Kimberly and Zack traded uncomfortable looks while Jason paced the room and Tommy just sat in the corner with a gloomy look on his face.

Billy came back in a few minutes looking cautious but relieved, "There are no accident reported and no one matching their description was brought into the emergency room. At least we know they are not hurt."

"Okay, but it still doesn't tell us where they are," said Jason bleakly.

"Can we call the police?" inquired Kim.

"Trini would be really upset if nothing happened." Billy said. "Look, guys, cell phone receptions are not always guaranteed in this area, or her battery could simply be dead. If we call the police and they are just down the street shopping--"

"Billy, can you track her through her cell phone?" asked Jason.

Billy swallowed nervously, "Jason, it would require me hacking into her wireless network. I haven't participated in that kind of activities in years. I might still be able to accomplish it, but I can't promise instantaneous results. Trini is probably better at it than I am."

"Well, Trini isn't here," an agitated Jason raised his voice. "Can you do it or not?"

"Jase," Zack stepped in between the two former rangers. "Billy is trying to help, but you do know you are asking him to commit a felony."

"Look, it will probably be faster if I contact a buddy of mine who works for the F.B.I." Billy said quietly, "just let me go make the call."

Jason sighed, "I'm sorry, Billy. Thanks."

Billy nodded and went off to make his call.

Zack breathed out heavily, and then spoke quietly to Jason, "Billy is worried about her, too. And Jason, he is no longer that boy with nothing to lose; he's the CEO of a billion dollar empire. If he gets caught, there are consequences."

Jason rubbed the back of neck, "I know."

"Jase, this is Trini. She is smart, and she is tough. She can take care of herself."

"I know, I know. But I…I just have this feeling…she is in trouble some how."

"You are worried, I understand. Give Billy some time to see if he can come up with something."

Jason looked around the room, "I'm sorry, I know you are all worried. I think I'm going to drive around and see if I can find anything."

"Jason, don't be ridiculous," Kim said, coming to stand beside Zack. "What? You are just going to get in your car and drive around aimlessly? How is that going to help find Trini?"

"She's out there. She could have been in an accident. Just because it hasn't been reported doesn't mean it hasn't happened. I know she is strong and capable, but if she is hurt, then she's going to need help, and I need to find her."

"At least wait until Billy comes back," said Zack. "Billy has a lot of resources, high level contacts. If anyone can help track down Trini, it's Billy."

Jason nodded, and then he turned his attention to Tommy, who continued to sit silently in the corner, "Tommy, I'm sorry. I know you are worry about Kelly, too."

Tommy nodded, "where do you think they were going?"

"I have no idea."

"I would assume that Trini would be really upset with Kelly. I just don't see the two of them going off on a shopping trip together." Tommy said as he looked out the window moodily.

"Trini has a great capacity for forgiveness. She wouldn't hold a grudge and she would try to be friendly for your sake." Jason said as he started to pace across the room.

"This doesn't make any sense," Kim asked, her hands on her hips, "They didn't just go down the street to the store because if that were the case and there was an accident, we would have already heard about it by now. Billy had left words with the local police station and local hospital, and they would notify him immediately. So, obviously, if something had happened, it wasn't in South Lake Tahoe. And if they were heading out of the area, why would Trini not let us know?"

"I got her location," Billy came running in.

"Where is she?" asked Jason.

Billy handed him the slip of paper with the address, "they were able to track Trini or at least her cell phone to a Starbucks about ten minutes from here."

Jason grabbed his keys and stormed out without a word. Zack tapped Tommy on the shoulder, and the two followed. Over his shoulder, Zack yelled, "you two stayed here just in case anyone calls." By the time they got outside, Jason already had the engine running and the two had to jump in quickly before they were left behind.

**

In a remote part of Lake Tahoe, Kelly stopped the Prius in front of a small cabin that was hidden behind mature aspens. She got out of the car and looked around. They were well hidden from the road. _~Perfect; now the only problem was getting sleeping beauty inside the castle ~_


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Jason pulled his Highlander into a parking spot in front of Starbucks, killed the engine, yanked open the door and jumped out all in one motion. He ran into the coffee house with Tommy and Zack following close behind.

Quickly, he scanned the interior, two girls working behind the counter, a young woman with a baby carriage was standing in front of the counter ordering her coffee drink, a teenage girl yelling at her boyfriend for flirting with the cute barista, an old man sitting in the corner reading a newspaper, no sign of Trini. Jason started to walk over to the girls behind the counter when Zack pulled him back, "let me, you are not in the right frame of mind, and we won't be able to get any useful information if you frighten them."

Jason took a deep breath but nodded his head in agreement. Jason and Tommy stayed back as Zack walked over to the girls and smiled, "excuse me, Miss, but we are looking for a couple of our friends. We think they might have been here. Both are in their mid-twenties, one is Asian, about my height, slender, long black hair, er…" turning to Jason, "What was Trini wearing?"

"A red and grey plaid shirt, black jeans, and possibly a black jacket."

"Right, and the other girl is Caucasian, short, dark hair, I'm not sure what she was wearing, but they would have been here about ten minutes ago."

The brunette barista shrugged, but the blonde girl looked puzzled, "well, I remember an Asian girl leaving with a short brunette. They didn't come in together. But that was almost two hours ago."

"Are you sure?" Zack asked.

"Yeah. We haven't been that busy this morning. I remember them because the shorter woman took forever to fix her coffee, and the Asian girl was wearing the same Northface jacket that I was planning to buy."

"Was anyone else with them? Did they speak with anyone else?"

The girl thought about it for a minute, and then shook her head. "No, the shorter woman came in and order a coffee and a hot chocolate. The other girl was still outside at the time. I saw her checking her tires. Then she came in and went into the bathroom. And then they left. Oh, I think it was the shorter woman who drove away."

"You are certain about this?" asked Zack, frowning.

"Yeah, like I said, it was really quiet this morning. I looked outside and saw the Asian girl walked around and got into the passenger seat."

Jason had heard enough, so he quickly walked around the room searching. He looked through every corner, every table, every chair, then he went to the counter and started to dig through things, the brunette barista became upset, "Sir, you can't do that."

Ignoring her, Jason started to shift the various containers around. When he still couldn't find what he was looking for, he went over to the trashcan and tossed the lid onto the floor, he picked up the trash container and turned it upside down, "HEY!" both girls yelled.

"I'm sorry, Miss," Zack said and took out two fifty-dollar bills and put them inside the tip jar.

Both girls' eyes widened, the blonde finally stammered, "er…okay, but tell your friend that's it, alright. He can't mess up anything else."

Meanwhile, Jason had searched and found what he was looking for, he hurried back to Zack and Tommy and showed them Trini's blackberry, "she was here." Then, realizing there were two sets of reproachful eyes glaring at him, he looked around at the mess that he had made, he apologized, "I'm sorry, I…"

The blonde looked at Zack and then at the bills floating inside the jar and finally shrugged, "it's okay."

"Why would Trini throw her phone into the trash? That doesn't make sense." Tommy said.

"Unless Trini wasn't the one who threw it away," replied Jason, his tone icy.

"What are you saying, man?" Tommy asked belligerently.

"I'm saying there were only the two of them. You and I both agree that Trini would not have thrown her phone away like this. So, it stands to reason that there is only one other person who could have done it. My question is why would she do that? And where has she taken Trini?"

"Look, bro, I don't like what you are implying. You are accusing Kelly of setting out to hurt Trini." said Tommy.

Jason took a step closer and stared at Tommy coldly, "if she even hurt one hair on Trini's head, I'm going to wring her fucking neck."

Zack jumped in between the two men and backed Tommy off. He turned to Jason and placed both hands on his shoulders, "Jason, calm down."

Jason shoved Zack away, "don't tell me to fucking calm down. Trini is out there somewhere, maybe hurt, scared, and that woman he brought with him has something to do with it."

"Jason, this isn't going to help Trini." Zack said calmly. "We need information, and we need Tommy's help."

Jason took a deep breath and then pulled out his phone, "Billy, call the police, get an APB out on them, and then I need you to find out everything you can about Kelly."

Tommy looked startled, but Jason just glared at him, "what's her last name?"

"Er…McCoy."

"Where did she grow up?

"Idaho. I don't remember the town, Ket…Ketchup or something like that."

Jason rolled his eyes, "Kelly McCoy from Ketchum, Idaho. I don't care what you have to do; I don't care if it's illegal. You find out everything you can about her, her background, her job, her finances, look into her credit cards and see if she had used it today. We should be back in about ten minutes. Oh and Billy, try to see if you can pull the surveillance video from Starbucks."

**

Trini woke to the mother of all headaches. She groaned softly and raised her hand to her temple, and that's when she realized she was lying on a lumpy mattress with her left hand handcuffed to the bedpost. She sat up in fear and quickly scanned the room; the first thing she saw was Kelly sitting on a chair with a small table between them, eyeing her spitefully.

Trini yanked on the handcuffs and the bed rattled slightly, "What's going on, Kelly?"

"Not so tough now, are we?" asked Kelly. "I bet you never thought you would be at my mercy one day, did you?"

Trini frowned, "How long have I been out?"

"A little over three hours."

"What did you give me?" Trini asked, lifting her free hand to rub the back of her head, "my head really hurts."

Kelly snickered, "That's not from the drug. I had a hard time dragging you in here. I think you might have banged your head a few times."

"Who are you?" asked Trini, baffled.

"You really don't recognize me? You have had so many enemies that you actually forgotten about me?" Demanded Kelly, sounding insulted as she got up and leaned across the table.

Trini's eyes narrowed. Something about this woman was familiar, but her mind was still drawing a blank, "no, should I?"

"You really don't remember me?" Kelly practically stuck her face right in front of Trini's.

Trini frowned, dark hair, brown eyes, bad complexion, sullen mouth, bags under her eyes, and obviously hated her, "Rita?"

"Who the Hell is Rita?"

_~ Okay, not Rita. ~_ "Er…never mind. Who are you?"

Kelly slapped her hands down on the table angrily, "you really don't remember?"

Noting that it was just the two of them inside the cabin, her fear was starting to subside, but her irritation was growing exponentially, "I'm beginning to think that you are the one who's confused. Are you sure you kidnapped the right person?"

"Angel Grove Elementary, fourth grade, boys' locker room, broken nose, now do you remember?" Kelly leaned over again and shrieked.

Trini looked at her really carefully, "Heather? Wait, that's not your real name? What was your name?"

"Shannon Kelly McCoy!" yelled Kelly, sitting back down and flinging her arms to the side.

"Oh right, Shannon."

"Well, I was Jennifer in middle school, but now I go by Kelly."

"What do you plan to do with me?" asked Trini reasonably.

"I plan to make you sorry for everything that you did to me, I plan to—" Kelly stopped and thought really hard, "It's call payback, bitch!"

Trini looked around. They were in a small cabin. There was a sofa at one end, a table and a couple of chairs, one of which Kelly was sitting. Trini was lying on a double bed and she could see another room off to the side, probably the bathroom. The room opened up to a small kitchen. There was a fireplace and a stack of store-bought wood for burning. The place was clean and the furnishing was simple. Over all, it looked like a rental cabin.

"What is this place?"

"Your home for as long as I want it to be," replied Kelly with a smirk.

"How did you find it?" Trini asked, her tone even and composed.

"On the internet. I rented this place. It's secluded, off the main road, no one will hear you if you scream."

"You went to a lot of trouble, why?"

"I told you, payback!"

"Kidnapping, false imprisonment, you drugged me, which I believe qualify for intent to commit great bodily harm, all this because of something that happened fifteen years ago? Something that you started?"

"You broke my nose, everyone was laughing at me. And I wasn't able to properly fix my nose until I was sixteen."

"We were ten!" Trini said exasperatedly.

"For the remainder of that term, everywhere I went, people were whispering behind my back. Then I had to sit on the bench during that big track and field competition and watch you went on to win every fucking event that you participated. All the guys fell in love with you. I bet that geek Billy Cranston probably built a shrine to worship you. I was so sick of hearing how kind and smart and beautiful and athletic you were. Before you came along, I was the smartest, the most beautiful, the best athlete; I was the center of attention. You broke my nose, but I was the one labeled as the bully, I was the one who ended up with the bad rep."

Trini looked at the woman sitting across from her. _~The smartest? Yeah, right, real smart with this whole kidnapping fiasco. The most beautiful? Maybe she needs to get a mirror ~ "_And you never thought that some of it might have been your own fault?"

"I walked around with this big, swelling nose for weeks while you barely got slapped on the wrist, and everyone, even the fifth graders were all in awe of you. I was the girl everyone aspired to be until you came along."

"Are you kidding me? You were vicious, sneaky, and vindictive. You were only admired, if you want to call it that, within your own malicious little Heather circle."

"I was too admired," insisted Kelly. "Jason would have eventually come around if it wasn't for you. The coolest boy in school until you showed up, then he was a puddle of mush, sickening!"

Trini frowned, "What happened to you? You just disappeared after fourth grade."

"My dad got a new job, and we had to move, all the way to Ketchum, Idaho, population three thousand." Kelly griped angrily. "While you were the captain of the volleyball team, we didn't even have enough people in my school to form a team."

The more Kelly rambled, the calmer Trini became. It was a badly planned kidnapping that was bounded to come back and bite her on the ass. As a bodyguard, Trini had been in plenty of stickier situations over the past couple of years, often with the lives of other people handicapping her. Looking at her childhood nemesis, she wondered how Kelly would react if she were to know that Trini could kill her in a dozen different ways with just her bare hands.

"What are you thinking of?" demanded Kelly. "You can forget about being rescued. No one knows you are here."

"Actually I was thinking about you and Tommy," Trini eyes glittered angrily, "it was all a plan?"

"Not really. I just lucked into it. I had no idea who he was at first. You got to admit, the boy isn't bad to look at." Kelly leaned back against the chair, staring at Trini crossly, "the next morning I saw a picture of the six of you together, I guess it was when you guys were in high school. I would recognize that pasty face of yours anywhere. It was a picture of Jason, Tommy, Zack, Billy, Princess Barbie and you at some sort of competition, you all were looking so happy and shit. I wanted to barf when I realized I just banged her Royal Highness' ex-boyfriend."

"So you just decided to latch onto Tommy and what? Hope to meet up with us someday? You must have known that we were no longer in high school. We all have our own lives, living in different parts of the country."

"I questioned Tommy about you guys, skillfully, of course."

"Of course," Trini said sarcastically. _~Tommy, you idiot! ~_

"He told me he still kept in touch with you guys, and a reunion was mentioned, so I figured I would stick with him for a while and see what happens. Tommy isn't so bad, clueless, but that boy can be pretty wild and entertaining. Oh, and he told me what a heartless bitch you were," said Kelly scathingly.

Trini returned her glare, "I know you are dying to tell me, so go ahead, do tell."

"Tommy said Jason was so infatuated with you he didn't even know whether he was coming or going. Plenty of girls wanted him, but he chose to follow you around like a puppy dog. Tommy told me how you were all coy and played hard to get all through high school. You got him jumping through hoops, but you wouldn't put out until you guys were in Switzerland. I guess the competition was too fierce, wasn't it? You saw you were going to lose him, so you finally dropped your good, little innocent act. And then you dumped him just because he wanted to go back home to Angel Grove. What did Jason ever saw in a bitch like you anyway?"

"Tommy told you I played hard to get?"

Kelly had the grace to look guilty, "it was implied."

"Right!"

"I really hate you!"

"Believe me, Kelly or Shannon or whatever the hell you choose to call yourself today, the feeling is totally mutual."

"You're doing it again, aren't you?" when Trini raised her eyebrow in question, "making Jason jumps through hoops for you! What kind of heartless bitch are you anyway? I was watching the two of you last night. Jason, the guy who is totally fearless, was tiptoeing around you. And when he turned around and saw you, I thought he was going to get down on his knees and beg for forgiveness. Either you are phenomenal in bed or you put some kind of hex on him."

Trini looked at her, her expression full of pity, "you would never understand what Jason and I have."

"Really? I plan to find out," said Kelly spitefully.

Trini rolled her shoulders tiredly, "what are you planning to do? Keep me chained to this bed forever? Or were you planning on killing me?"

Kelly scratched her head, looking slightly bewildered, "I…"

"What are you planning to do, Kelly?"

"I plan on sleeping with Jason, then I'm going to come back and tell you all about it, maybe I'll even show you a video."

"And what would that accomplish?"

"You'll be hurt and upset and humiliated, just like I was," said Kelly angrily.

"Why would I be upset with Jason when I know you were the psycho who engineered all this?"

"Well…" Kelly stuttered, "I…I will make a video and put it on the internet and then everyone will know your boyfriend was doing another woman. Jason would be humiliated and it would serves him right since the prick chose you over me."

"You think Jason will be humiliated? He's a guy. He'll be labeled the hero, while you…well…if the name fits."

"Shut up! My plan is going to work!"

Trini rolled her eyes, "I'm sure it will work really well. Let me ask you, you just plan on showing up at the house alone and tell them what? That I walked into the lake?"

"No, I'm going to tell them you met up with an old boyfriend and decided to stay in Reno with him."

"And naturally they would believe you," Trini said dubiously._ "_Ladies and Gentlemen, let me present to you the winner of the Idiot of the Year award."

"Shut the fuck up!"

Trini just shrugged and started looking around the room.

"You don't call, you don't answer their calls, what else are they supposed to think other than that you don't want to talk to them." Kelly muttered.

"Jason won't believe you."

"Of course he will," insisted Kelly. "I saw it in his eyes last night, he's not sure of you."

"I think you will have trouble getting Jason or anyone of them to believe that I would just walk off with another guy."

"I'll make them understand," said Kelly through clenched teeth.

"And then what? You think Jason will just jump into bed with you simply because…I didn't call?"

"You went off with another man. I will be there to comfort him. I…I…"

"And what will Tommy be doing all this time while you are comforting Jason? And do you really think Kimberly will just sit quietly by and do nothing. You make one move on Jason, and she'll tear out every strand of your hair."

"I…I can take care them," said Kelly doubtfully.

"The same way you took care of me? You didn't even think this through, did you? You went to all this trouble, courting jail time, just to get me out of the way, and for what? Jason won't touch you with a ten-foot pole. You would have to drug him—oh, my God, that's your plan, isn't it? You're actually planning on drugging him?" Trini asked, her voice full of disgust.

"Only as a last result," Kelly said.

"God, you are pathetic!"

"I am not," yelled Kelly, jumping to her feet. "You better shut that mouth or—"

"Or what?" demanded Trini. "You are just dying to hit me once, aren't you? What are you waiting for?"

Trini might be chained to a bed, but she still looked mighty fierce. Rubbing her nose, Kelly sat back down, "my plan does not require physical violence. I get Jason; break the two of you up. I'll be in a happy place."

"The only place you should be in is inside a padded cell."

**


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: Not mine

* * *

Chapter 15

Jason rushed inside just as Kimberly was getting off the phone, "well?"

Kimberly licked her lips nervously, "I called the police. They are putting out an APB on her car and they are sending an officer here to take our statements. I have a picture of Trini; I guess the police will want pictures of them. Tommy, do you have a picture of Kelly?"

Tommy looked through his wallet and then pulled out of picture of him with Kelly. "Here."

Kim took the picture and put it on the table, next to the one she had of Trini. Jason stared at the picture of Trini for a while, and then sat down dejectedly, "have you guys been able to find anything on Kelly?"

Kimberly looked apprehensively between Jason and Tommy, "yeah, Billy's friend at the F.B.I. ran her profile through their database. You guys are not going to like this, but her full name is actually Shannon Kelly Murphy and er…"

"Just spit it out, Kim," said Jason crisply, rubbing his temple.

"We know her, Jason. Before her family moved to Idaho, they lived in Angel Grove. She went to Angel Grove Elementary, and was in the same class as we were."

Jason's head shot up and he stared at Kimberly, "I don't remem…oh my God, she was one of the Heathers, the one who got Trini into trouble on her first day in school."

"Yeah, and she's also a con woman. There were complaints filed against her, but she was never convicted. She's not a real antique dealer, she sets up these fake deals, usually with older men, and then she would take the money and run."

"I don't understand," Tommy said. He was looking tired and defeated. "You are telling me my fiancée is a con artist and she went to school with you guys and had some kind of altercation with Trini?"

Kimberly said irately, "on Trini's first day at Angel Grove, she outsmarted Shan…Kelly, became the new track and field star, and naturally Kelly's jealousy couldn't handle it and she set out to embarrass Trini. Trini got her back by simply decking her. She left the following year, and Trini had never given her a second thought, but I guess Kelly has a long memory when it comes to holding a grudge."

"Wait a minute, you are saying Kelly did all this because of something that happened when they were ten?" asked Zack incredulously. "That's stupid."

"Well, Kelly is stupid," answered Kim as Tommy walked away from the group and sat down in front of the fireplace, his eyes full of confusion.

"God, what a mess!" Jason rubbed his face tiredly, then looked around the room, "Where's Billy?"

"He's in the conference room. He is calling everyone he knows. He's really trying, Jason." Kimberly said softly.

"I know. I know he's trying. I know you are all trying to help. I'm just worried and frustrated--"

"Hey," Billy came out, "I got someone looking for a trail on both Kelly's and Trini's credit cards and I should have the surveillance video within the next half an hour."

"Thank you, Billy."

"She is my friend, too."

Jason nodded, "I'm sorry that I snapped at you earlier."

"It's alright. I understand." Billy glanced to where Tommy was sitting. Zack was now sitting with him in a show of moral support, but neither one was saying anything. "Is Tommy okay?"

"I don't know. I…er…I was kind of harsh with him. I blamed him for bringing Kelly here." Jason turned and slammed his hand on top on the mantle, "I know it isn't fair because this is hitting him hard, too. I couldn't help myself. I wish we know where to look. This waiting is driving me crazy."

"Hey, it's okay. We all understand how you feel. Tommy too. We need to regroup and figure out how to find Trini, all right? Tommy, Zack, come over here," Billy called. "We are going to need all of us working together on this."

**

"You do know this ludicrous plan of yours is going backfire on you," Trini was sitting on the bed and saying conversationally.

"I'll save my breath if I were you. You'll be talking to yourself soon enough."

"I hope you like communal showers." When Kelly stared at her with a look of bewilderment, Trini rolled her eyes and explained, "Prison, where you will be spending the next five to ten years."

"I'll be long gone by the time they find you," Kelly returned.

"Wow, you're changing your master plan already? I thought you were going to come back and tell me all about your incredibly hot night with Jason."

Kelly's mouth tightened into a grim line, "I've changed my mind, but don't worry, I'll make sure you get to see the video. I wouldn't want you to miss seeing how incredibly hot Jason is when he's with a real woman."

"If you say so," shrugged Trini.

"I do," Kelly yelled, kicking a chair across the room angrily, and then spoiled the whole effect by slipping on her heel and landing on her butt.

**

"Thanks, Kevin, I owe you one." Billy hung up his phone and turned to address the group, "that was Kevin, he works for the sheriff's office. He was able to pull the surveillance tape from Starbucks and he is emailing me the footage right now. Come on, maybe we'll be able figure something out from it."

The group huddled around as Billy played the video on the computer. They saw Kelly went into the coffee house, order her drinks, waited for the hot chocolate and then went to fix her coffee. She added cream and sugar to her coffee and kept stirring it until another customer who was also fixing her coffee walked away. They could see Kelly still standing there, but it was hard to tell what she was doing. Jason turned to Billy, "Can you enhance that?"

"I'll try," Billy said and started to play with the footage. The enhanced image showed Kelly looking around to make sure no one was paying attention and then she pulled a small packet from her purse, she pulled off the lid on another cup and dropped a small pill inside. Quickly she replaced the lid just as Trini walked in.

"My God, she drugged her," Zack said, and turned to look at Jason whose rage filled eyes were glued to the screen.

The group glanced quickly at each other and then turned their attention back to the screen. Trini stopped and said a few words to Kelly and then she was out of the frame. Kelly watched Trini walked away and then she opened her purse again, this time pulling out Trini's blackberry. Once again she looked quickly around to make sure it was all clear, and then she dropped the phone into the trashcan.

Jason pushed away from the table, "I've seen all I need."

"Jason," Tommy said timidly.

"What?"

"I'm…sorry, bro."

Jason sighed heavily, "I don't need you to be sorry. I need you to help me find Trini. Did Kelly say anything, anything at all that could be useful? Anything you could think of."

Tommy shook his head, "She asked a lot of questions about Trini, wanted to know everything about her. She told me she was interested in all my friends, and I didn't think anything of it at the time, but she was almost obsessed with Trini."

Jason ran his hand through his hair, "Is she armed?"

Tommy frowned, "No, I don't think she owns a gun. Besides, we flew in yesterday. There was no way she could have gotten through security check at the airport if she had a gun with her. We picked up the rental car and drove straight here. She was with me the whole time."

Jason nodded, feeling a little better. "Does she know anyone that lives around here?"

"No, at least she never mentioned anyone."

Jason was about to say something else when Billy's cell phone rang. Billy quickly answered, "William Cranston,"

Jason watched as Billy's eyes glinted brightly for a second, and then he grabbed a pen and started to scribble on a note pad. He thanked the caller profusely before ending the call.

"I think we got it."

"What do you have?" Jason asked impatiently.

"Kelly used her credit card to pay for the rental of a cabin right here in Lake Tahoe. I have the address."

**

Kelly picked up the key to Trini's Prius and smiled smugly, "I hope you don't get too lonely staying here by yourself, but then again, who knows? I heard black bears like to drop in unexpectedly. "

"I hope your butt isn't still hurting you," Trini returned sarcastically.

"Bitch!"

"Sticks and stones, I am rubber you are glue, whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you."

"You—"

"What? Come on, Kelly, if you actually have any brain cells left in that pea brain of yours, you would know you are just wasting your time," Trini said as she leaned back against the bedpost looking like she didn't have a care in the world.

Kelly just glared at her as she checked the contents inside her purse, "Well, it's been nice chatting with you, but I have to go now. Jason is waiting for me."

"And what are you going to tell Tommy?"

Kelly frowned, "Tommy is not part of the equation. This is between you and me with Jason thrown in as the bonus."

"My advice is for you to run as fast and as far as you can."

"I'm not afraid of you, bitch. You might think you are tough shit, but I'm the one walking out the door while you are the one chained up until I decided otherwise."

"Oh, it isn't me you have to worry about. You show that face of yours back at Billy's and you will have five people just waiting to beat the crap out of you. Yes, five, including Tommy. God, how stupid can you be? You actually think there would be one sane person who would believe you?"

"Shut up!" Kelly said angrily, jumping to her feet.

"Why don't you come over and make me?" taunted Trini as she stood and placed her free hand on her hip.

Kelly took a step closer but then wisely backed away, "I don't have time for this. I have a man to seduce."

"My boyfriend? The one you planned on drugging? Hey, maybe he'll even call you Trini."

"SHUT UP!" Kelly shrieked and rushed over to Trini. She was brining her arm down to slap Trini when Trini pivoted sharply and grabbed her by the wrist with her free hand. Kelly yelled out in pain when Trini brought her wrist back, forcing her to bend over. Without pause, Trini shifted and brought her right leg straight up and straight back down in an ax kick, and held Kelly down with her heel on her back.

Kelly cried out again as she struggled in vain to dislodge Trini's foot on her back.

Trini smiled grimly, "You haven't learned a damn thing in fifteen years. I'm tired of listening to you run your mouth, and your shrieking is giving me a headache." Swiftly Trini pulled her foot back but only to deliver a sharp kick to Kelly's temple, knocking her out.

Ignoring the girl, Trini turned her attention to her handcuffs. She yanked on it again, but all she did was ended up hurting her wrist. She needed something to help her pick the lock. Sighing, she reached over to Kelly and pulled a bobby pin out of her hair and set to work.

**

Jason stopped the car well away from the cabin, "Be real quiet, guys, there is no back door, so we all have to go in the front. Be careful, we don't think she's armed, but let's not take any chances. As soon I kick the door in, we are going to take down who ever is inside. Kim, grab Trini and get out of there, understand?"

Everyone nodded, even Tommy, as the group silently crept toward the cabin in a single file.

Trini was just reaching for the door handle when it was kicked in violently. Reacting on instinct, Trini pushed Kelly to one side and kicked the person entering the front door, sending him crashing into the guy behind him, who crashed into the one behind him, and so forth.

Carefully, Trini looked out the cabin and saw five or six people in a pile, one on top of the other, lying on the ground.

Jason rolled off the pile and jumped up, "Trini?"

"Jason!" Trini squealed and jumped into his open arms. "You found me."

"And…you kicked me." Jason said laughingly as he continued to hold tightly onto her, his face buried in her neck.

"Get off me!" a familiar sound screamed.

"Kimberly?" An astonished Trini lifted her head and looked around, "Where are you?"

Jason released Trini and turned quickly to help untangle the others. Tommy got up first, followed by Zack, then Billy, with little Kimberly still lying on the ground.

"Oh my God, Kimberly, are you alright?" Trini rushed over to her friend and helped her up.

Kimberly rubbed her stomach, "yeah, next time I'm not staying at the back of the line!" Then, she turned to Trini and hugged her, "Oh, Trini, we were so worried about you, and I've never seen Jason so out of control before." Then Kim's sweet face turned ferocious, "where is that bitch? I'm gonna kick her ass all the way to Timbuktu."

Trini nodded toward the cabin and Earth's first group of Power Rangers marched inside.

Kelly was still huddled in a corner where Trini had pushed her earlier; her hands were handcuffed behind her back. Kimberly marched over to her and then exclaimed, "Oh my God, Trini, what did you do to her?"

"What are you talking about? I didn't touch her." Trini said, then amended, "well, not much."

"Her face? Why does she look like that?"

"What?" Trini shook her head, "I kicked her, once, well, maybe twice, but never in the face."

"Then what's wrong with her face?" demanded Kimberly.

Trini frowned, then her hand flew up to cover her mouth, "Er, Kim, that's her real face."

"Huh?"

"Au-natural."

Kim's eyes widened in disbelieve, "You're shitting me!"

Trini just shrugged, "I guess she was in too much of a hurry to hustle me out of the house this morning, so she didn't have time to…er…make herself presentable?"

"Shut up! I hate you all, every single one of you self-righteous assholes," screamed Kelly, she was still sitting on the floor but she had pulled her knees up and was literally stomping on the floor.

The guys crossed their arms and glared, but Kimberly walked right up her and poked her in the forehead, and Kelly scrambled back nervously. "You are so lucky that Trini kicked your ass first. We might be self-righteous, but you are dumber than a box of rocks. If this had played out the way you planned, I would have shoved your face through a wall, not that that wouldn't have been an improvement."

Kelly had her back to the wall and stared at Kim apprehensively. Kim looked at Tommy before turning toward Trini and smirked, "I did tell you he was slipping."

Trini's smile disappeared at the mention of Tommy, she looked toward the former white ranger and shifted uncomfortably, "Tommy, I…I'm sorry."

Tommy stared at her incredulously, "You are sorry? Why? It was my fiancée who drugged you and kidnapped you and God knows what else she was going to do to you. God, Trini, I'm so sorry, I…"

Trini walked up to Tommy and grabbed his face; forcing him to meet her eyes, "Stop it, Tommy. Kelly is the only one responsible for what she did, no one else. We have never blamed anyone else for things that they didn't do, and we are not going to start now. You got it?"

Tommy sighed and then hugged Trini tightly. Trini patted him on the back and then broke off the hug. "Remember, it's not your fault, it's not my fault. It's Kelly's."

Tommy nodded solemnly and Trini smiled at him again before turning toward the rest of the gang, "Thank you for coming, you guys, but how did you guys find me? Billy, was it you?"

Billy looked embarrassed, "Friends of mine at the F.B.I. traced Kelly's credit card record to this cabin. I didn't do anything. I'm sorry."

"Hey, if you got friends in the F.B.I. who could gather this information quicker and more reliable, why would you need to do anything?" asked Trini. "Besides, I'm sure you are probably owing favors left and right because of me. Thank you, Billy."

Billy blushed.

Jason interrupted by simply picking Trini up and sitting down with her on his lap. He glared at the rest of his friends and they wisely stepped outside, taking Kelly with them.

"Well, that wasn't very nice. It's cold outside, and they came to rescue me," reprimanded Trini.

"I don't care," Jason said and ran his hand tenderly down her face, checking for injuries, "Are you sure you are okay?"

"I'm fine," Trini smiled at him. "Were you really worried?"

Jason picked up her hand and kissed her knuckles, "I was." Then his face thundered as he saw the purple bruising on her wrist, "What did—"

"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay," Trini grabbed his chin and kissed the corner of his mouth, "she handcuffed me to the bedpost, that's it, I promise. She was too afraid of me to even come near me. That was the only smart thing she did."

Jason sighed as he rubbed his thumb over her bruise, "I could kill her now and dispose of her body and no one will ever know."

Trini laughed and lay her head on his shoulder, "forget about her. She's a nonentity. I just want to concentrate on us."

Jason smiled, but his smile disappeared when Zack poked his head inside the doorway. He smiled apologetically, walked over, and squatted down in front of them, "The police are here. Billy is speaking with them, but they want a statement from Trini. You feel up to answering a few questions?"

Trini shrugged, "Don't really have a choice, do I? Yeah, I'll be fine." She climbed off of Jason reluctantly, "let's get this over and done with, then we can all go back to celebrating Christmas."

**

* * *

Okay, for those of you who were waiting for Jason to be the big hero, I'm sorry. It was never my intention to have Jason ride to the rescue simply because I don't think Trini is the kind of girl who needs to be rescued. Especially since I made Kelly such a dumb kidnapper, it would have been insulting to Trini.

Also, I think I might have unintentionally misled some of you when I gave the story a "M" rating. I never planned on any graphic love scenes. The rating was strictly due to language, and I wanted to be safe. I'm now debating whether I should write a love scene even though I suck at it. I'll try, but it may not happen.

Finally, this story is coming to an end soon, probably only one or two more chapters. You guys have been awesome with the feedback. Thank you!


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Disclaimer: Not mine

After Trini had given her statement to the police, Kelly was taken into custody while the gang was free to go. The gang went back to the house and spent a quiet Christmas Eve by the fire, eating pizza and listening to Christmas carols. But the joyous mood that they had the last few days had all but disappeared. Tommy was especially quiet and only managed a couple of monosyllable replies. Finally, he had excused himself and headed up to his room. The group watched him walked up the stairs and then Jason stood up, "Maybe I should go apologize to him. I was kind of rude."

Trini held on to his hand, "I think I should be the one to talk to him."

Jason nodded and reluctantly relinquished his hold on her. Trini squeezed his hand and then ran up the stairs.

Tommy had left his door opened. Trini stood outside the doorway and was just about to knock on the door when she saw Tommy pulled out his suitcase and tossed it on top of the bed. Her manners quickly flew out the window, and Trini stepped inside the room, "What are you doing?"

Tommy turned and he looked surprised to see her there, "I..er…I'm going to try to catch a flight out first thing in the morning. I think it's better if I just go home."

"Better for whom?" demanded Trini.

Tommy sighed, "for all of us. Look, Trini, please don't make this even more difficult."

"Just answer me this? Are you leaving, ditching friends that you haven't seen in years because of me or is it because of Kelly?"

"I don't understand."

Trini took a deep breath, "Are you upset with me, for a lack of better words, turned Kelly into this…unbalanced person who did what she did, or are you upset with Kelly because of what she did to me?"

Tommy looked at Trini like she was the one unbalanced, "Of course I am upset with Kelly. Why would I be upset with you? I'm upset with Kelly; I'm upset with myself. How could I have hooked up with a woman like that and then brought her here to hurt you?"

"I thought we already settled this, Tommy. What Kelly did was all on her. You don't get take the blame for something she has done. If you don't get this self-pity shit out of your head right now, I'm going to send Kim up here to kick your ass!"

"Trini,"

"No, I won't let you do this. We have been friends for a long time, Tommy Oliver. I know the kind of person you are. You are gentle and kind, and sometimes people take advantage of that kindness. Kelly did. I will accept it if you need to grieve for Kelly because she was the love of your life or something, but you running away because you think all of this is somehow your fault is totally unacceptable."

Tommy sat down on his bed, looking subdued. "No, she wasn't the love of my life. I don't like being alone, and she was fun to be with. I planned a future with her; she was important to me, and I did care for her a lot. Now, when I look back at all the times that we were together, why didn't I see the signs? Why was I so stupid?"

Trini sat down next to him, "she's a con artist; she's good at deceiving people. It is not stupid just because you want to believe in the inherent goodness of mankind. I left with her this morning, allowed her to drug me, does that make me stupid? And Tommy Oliver you better remember that I have a mean right hook before you answer that question."

Tommy sighed, "It's hard to accept that I have been so completely fooled by someone I thought would be an important part of my life."

"Someday you are going to meet a woman who is right for you and love you without an agenda. But right now, it's Christmas and you are with friends. Don't push us away because of some misguided sense of chivalry."

"Jason was right, you have an amazing capacity for forgiveness, but not everyone is as forgiving. I'm sure Kim is thanking her lucky star for dumping me when she did, and Jason—"

Trini cut him off, "Jason loves me, but he loves you, too. Whatever he might have said, it was out of fear. And Kim is worried about you, all of us are. Tommy, stop being a martyr. I could just as easily taken the blame and said that it was my behavior in fourth grade that traumatized Kelly so much that led her to do what she did. But that's pretty ridiculous, isn't it? Almost as much as you thinking it was your fault."

Tommy stared at her for so long that Trini was starting to get uncomfortable. Then, to her surprise, he laughed and hugged her, "Jason is a lucky bastard."

**

In the end, they all stayed until the day after Christmas. Even though Tommy wasn't exactly in a festive mood, he had lightened up some. Then it was time to go home, Billy, Kimberly and Zack were all headed back to Los Angeles to prepare for Crimson's big New Year's Eve ball. Trini was headed back to San Francisco where she would pack up all her belongings and close out her apartment before going back to Angel Grove to be with her family for New Year. Tommy had decided to go back to Angel Grove also and was hoping to catch a ride with Jason.

Jason, however, had decided that he was going to San Francisco with Trini, and he wasn't giving her a chance to say no.

Trini's kidnapping drama had shown him that bad things could happen with no provocation and often without notice. A few hours of not knowing where she was or if she were all right had convinced him that he never wanted to be without her again. He had told Trini that he would be patient and let her set the pace, but he didn't want to wait anymore. He loved her; it was that simple. It was time for Jason to bring his girl back to where she belongs, with him.

With his mind made up, Jason strode into Tommy's room and handed him the key to his Highlander.

"What's going on?" Tommy asked, bewildered.

"I'm not going back to Angel Grove yet, but you can take my car. Just take care of it, no stunts, remember that it is not a racecar, and I will kick your ass if you return it with even one tiny scratch mark. Oh, and you can leave the car at my mom's."

"And where do you think you are going?" asked Kim as she stepped inside the room with Zack, both were all packed and dressed for the long ride back to L.A.

Jason shrugged, "I'm going to San Francisco with Trini, help her pack up, and then we'll go back to Angel Grove together."

"Wait, I just talked to Trini, and she didn't even tell me about it." Kimberly said.

"Well, she doesn't exactly know about it, yet."

"What are you planning, Jason?" demanded Kim.

"I just told you," grinned Jason. "I'm going to San Francisco with Trini to help her pack. Moving is a big job."

Kim tilted her to one side, "and what do you intent to get out this Good Samaritan act?"

"What are you? Her mother?" Zack, who had remained silent the entire time, asked with a chuckle.

Kim slapped him on the arm, "I'm her best friend. I have to look out for her."

"It's Jason. You were the one who came up with all these crazy scenarios to get them back together just a few days ago," chastised Zack.

"I was drunk, and if he's cooking up some nefarious plot against Trini, then it's my job as her best friend to set him straight," said Kim.

"Look, Kim, you know I would never hurt her," Jason said sincerely. "A lot had happened this week; I just want to talk to her, sort things out. You know I love you guys, but this is a conversation that Trini and I need to have alone."

Kimberly glared at him menacingly, or at least as menacingly as a five foot tall former gymnast was able to, then pointing a finger at him warningly "hurt her and die!"

The three men watched Kimberly sauntered out of the room. Zack rubbed his hands together and then turned to Jason with a devilish smile on his face, "how are you going to tell Trini that you are inviting yourself to stay at her apartment?"

Jason blushed slightly, "I was hoping I would just tag along and she wouldn't…well…I haven't quite gotten that far yet."

"Leave it to the Zackman."

**

Zack knocked, and Trini opened the door with a smile, "hey, Zack. Come on in."

"Got everything?"

"Yeah," said Trini as she zipped up her duffel bag. "How's everyone else doing?"

"We are all packed, and the limo will be here in another half an hour or so for us," said Zack as he sat down on her bed and grinned. "I just love traveling with Billy. Tommy is all set, but Jason is worried about you."

Trini frowned, "why?"

"He's still trying to get over the whole kidnapping thing. I think it would really ease his mind if you ask him to go back to San Francisco with you."

"Zack, I'm only going to be there for a couple of days, only long enough for me to clean out my apartment. It's not like I can show him around; he'll be bored."

Zack laughed quietly, "don't you need any help? If one thing Jason has plenty of, is brute strength."

Trini bit her lip, "he might get the wrong idea if I ask him to come back to San Francisco with me."

"You know he is crazy about you, and I'm sure you are not immune to him. What is it that you are unsure of, Trini?"

"Well…I…" Trini's pondered the question for a whole minute and then her face broke into a wide smile, "nothing, absolutely nothing." Then she hugged Zack, "thank you, Zack."

**

Jason walked into Trini's second floor apartment and put her key down on the coffee table along with their take out. He had gone down the street to pickup a couple of sandwiches while she went to take a shower. It had been a long day. They had driven back from Lake Tahoe and then went straight to work on packing up her apartment.

Jason looked around the room. There were boxes everywhere. On one side were boxes that Trini would take back with her when she goes home. On the other side were boxes that the Salvation Army would be picking up along with her furniture. There were not a lot of furniture, just her bed, a chest of drawers, a sofa, coffee table, a bookshelf, a computer desk, and her television was mounted on the wall. A few pictures of friends and family, but no other nik-naks. Jason had questioned her about the lack of furnishing, and Trini had explained that because she was away so much, she never bothered to purchase more than what was absolutely necessary. Because she had lived on the bare minimum, it made packing a lot easier. It was amazing that Trini had fitted the last two years in three boxes of personal items and four garbage bags of clothes. Everything else she was leaving behind.

Jason had just taken off his jacket when Trini came out of the bathroom in her flannel pajamas and with hair still slightly wet. _~How does she managed to make flannel pajamas look so sexy?~_

Trini walked straight over to Jason and sat down next to him. She grabbed the paper bag and took out their sandwiches, "Thank you, Jason. I'm starving." Jason just smiled and grabbed his own sandwich.

**

Jason watched whimsically as Trini tossed away the liter from their dinner and then crossed the room to sit down next to him. His arm went out and pulled her closer and was happy that not only did she not resist, she had put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Just looking at her made him ache. Fresh from her shower, she smelled fresh and clean, her face totally scrubbed clean, and she looked incredibly young, soft, beautiful, and tempting. _~Think of something else, Jason. Like defusing a bomb in the middle of Artic Ocean or road kill. ~_

"So, this is it, huh?"

Trini looked around and nodded somewhat nostalgically. It was a nice place, small, clean and just a few blocks from the ocean. Even though her job had mandated her constant absence, she would still miss this place. "Yeah, I guess. Kinda reminds of after college, and now I'm closing another chapter of my life."

"A chapter closed, another begins, right?"

Trini looked at him, her eyes sparkling. Even in her relatively short twenty-five years, she had lived through many chapters. Jason was in many of them, through her childhood, when she became a young woman, and he had filled those chapters with friendship, joy, laughter, excitement and love. She didn't know how her next chapter would play out, but she knew she wanted him in it. As crazy and surreal as her kidnapping was, it also made her take stock of her life, re-examined what was really important and the life that she really wanted to live. Was it only two days ago that she and Jason were playing in the snow, talking about their baby girl _~Wait, that's not right. I teased him about naming our baby girl. He told me years ago that he wanted a girl that looks like me. Does he still want that? Will we be able to write a chapter with our little girl? ~ _

Trini turned her head to look at Jason, her eyes wide and glowed with anticipation. Jason looked down and smiled, "What it is? What are you thinking?"

Gathering her courage, "You never did tell me what we should name our baby girl."

"What?"

"Our baby girl, she's gonna need a name. We can't just call her it and we can't keep calling her baby because you know, sometimes I might want to call you that, and then it could get really confusing."

Feeling like his heart was jumping out of his chest, "Trini, what are you saying?"

"I…I want a baby with you. Okay, not this minute. We both still have things we need to do, but I also don't want to wait another seven years. I want you to know that I want a life with you, I want children, and I only want to have them with you." Her eyes darted away, "Unless…unless you don't—"

"I do. I do. You are the only person I have ever envisioned having a child with. God, Trini, don't you how long I have waited for you? I would wait another seven years if I have to, I love you so much."

"Then maybe we shouldn't wait any longer," Trini said, smiling so sweetly at him that Jason swore his heart had just melted.

"Trini?"

Trini blushed but she held on to his gaze.

Jason smiled with pure joy; he nuzzled her neck and then whispered in her ear, "I want you, so much that it hurts, but you already know that."

Her face still delicately pink, Trini turned and whispered in his ear, "you can have me, and I love you, too."

Jason felt as if his heart had skipped a few beats. He might be a gentleman, but he wasn't a fool. Thanking whatever deity was smiling upon him, he picked up Trini and set her on his lap. His gaze never wavering, his brown eyes meeting her even darker ones, "I'm keeping you."

Without waiting for Trini to response, Jason lowered his head and kissed her. Trini wrapped her arms around his neck as he licked on her lower lip, coaxing her to open her mouth. Her shyness vanished as the kiss deepened. While she started off being slightly timid and reserved, now she was all liquid heat as she pulled herself flush against Jason. When breathing became as issue, Jason pulled away and noted with satisfaction that Trini was breathing just as hard as he was. Slowly his mouth traveled over her forehead, skimped over her nose, wandered along her cheeks, explored her jaw and then returned to ravage her mouth. His fingers went to slowly unbutton her pajama top and hers literally just tore his T-shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor. Jason and Trini explored each other eagerly, rediscovering what they had let go seven years ago. With her still in his lap, Jason stood and carried her into the bedroom.


	17. Chapter 17 Epilogue

Epilogue

December 24, 2007

South Lake Tahoe

The dress was white, heavy silk satin, long sleeved, v-neck, clean lines. It hugged her upper body, accentuated her narrow waist, and then it fell gently to the ground. The dress was completely voided of all crystals, beadworks, or lace they were often found in most wedding gowns. It was a gorgeous, no frill, un-cluttered, Trini kind of dress. Trini stood back and looked at herself in the full-length mirror critically. Not that there was much to criticize. Her long, dark hair cascaded down her back unadorned. It was thick, shiny, and made a dramatic contrast to her simple, crisp, white gown. Looking outside the balcony window, she was truly amazed at how much work Billy had put into turning her simple, no fuss wedding into something out of a fairy tale. The snow had been shoveled off the pathways leading down to the pier; luminaries lined both sides that led to a lighted wedding arch. The tall pines scattered around were lit with thousands and thousands of lights. Cream-colored seat covers added both warmth and elegance to the chairs, and standing electric heaters were placed along both sides of the seating area.

Trini sighed, when she and Jason had first decided on getting married, they had pictured a small, intimate wedding maybe in the church back home in Angel Grove where they had attended Christmas mass and the occasional Sunday service. They had limited the guests to just the immediate family members and their closest friends. Their plan had quickly unraveled when Kimberly, their Maid of Honor, had decided to "help" plan the wedding.

~ flashback ~

"December 24? That's awesome. We can have a Christmas wedding. I know of this wedding planner; she has such unique ideas. Oh, Trini can arrive in a horse-drawn sleigh. We'll decorate it with Christmas foliage and lots of bells and maybe we can even have the coachman dresses as Santa Claus."

"Kim, did you hear me? We want a simple, intimate wedding, that means no grand entrance—"

Kimberly cut her off rudely, "Of course there'll be a grand entrance. You are the bride; you don't sneak into your own wedding. Oh, oh, oh, the dress. Oh, Trini, you would look wonderful in this European vintage wedding gown that I saw in this bridal magazine. Of course, it will be cold so you will need opera length gloves, a faux fur wrap, maybe even a tiara. Better yet, we can have Vera Wang design a gown for you. She's like the hottest wedding gown designer right now."

"Kim, we can not afford your kind of wedding," said Trini, trying to be reasonable.

Kimberly simply rolled her eyes and continued, "We can have the reception hall decorated entirely with crystal trees, with Swarovski crystals and ice candles everywhere." Both Trini and Jason were shaking their head vigorously in denial, but Kimberly was either too involved in her vision or she was simply ignoring them. "We should have a snowflakes adorned four tier wedding cake, oh and an ice sculpture. What do you think? A double swan or two entwined hearts? Oh, why limit to just one, we'll have both."

Kimberly had now moved onto flowers, and started a one-woman debate on the merits of towering eiffel vases filled with calla lilies versus Christmas gingerbread lighted centerpiece versus floating candles with petals.

Trini and Jason had looked at each other helplessly while Billy and Zack sat there secretly enjoying their discomfort. Trini whispered, "make her stop."

"You make her stop. She's your best friend." Jason returned just as quietly.

"You have known her longer."

"Which is why I know she will ignore anything I have to say."

Then, to Trini absolute disgust and astonishment, Jason totally ruined his fearless Red Ranger image as he jumped up and ran out of the room, followed immediately by Zack and Billy.

Jason had retreated to the kitchen and sat down tiredly. Billy and Zack sauntered in, their eyes twinkling with amusement.

Zack grinned, "What do you think, Billy? Should we help them book the Beverly Hills Country Club or the Four Seasons?"

Jason banged his head on the table, "All I wanted to do was to marry Trini, so that we can tell our parents we are not living in sin anymore. Kim is turning this into a circus freak show."

"Jase, you know it won't be like that. Kim has a great eye and fine style. It will be a storybook wedding." Billy said.

"Yeah, but it won't be our wedding." Jason lifted his head up, "Trini and I are not Kim. We don't want a huge wedding, we don't need a glamorous affair, we just want to share a very important day of our lives with the people who mean the most to us."

Billy shook his head laughing, "Jason, having a grand wedding is every girl's dream, even Trini's."

Jason shook his head, "Trini isn't like every other girl. She is private and she doesn't want fancy and grand. She wants truth and simple. Do you know what is the worst part? Trini is about to bolt. I could see that panicky look in her eyes."

"Jason, it's only one day—"

Trini ran into the room with a wild look in her eyes, "that's it. She's insane...and really scary. The wedding is off."

"You see!" Jason jumped up, glaring at Billy.

"Trini, calm down," Zack said, walking over to the distressed-bride-to-be and putting a comforting arm around her shoulder. "You know what Kim is like. She has all these visions and she loves to plan, but ultimately this is going to be your wedding. Right now, she's all charged up with excitement. But if you tell her to back off, she will."

Trini scowled at him, "she's talking about bagpipes and kilts, fancy wearing a skirt to the wedding, Best Man?"

Zack blanched, and Billy chuckled. "Relax, you guys. Kimberly is reacting to the news of two of her best friends getting married, but she is not going to hijack your wedding."

Trini still looked unconvinced, "maybe we should just elope."

Jason looked skeptical, "right, and your mom is really gonna love me."

"Look, I have an idea. You guys want a simple, intimate wedding. We can do that, and we can still give Kim enough to do to keep her happy. We can have the wedding at my house is Tahoe. The ceremony can be on either the front lawn or in back of the house. We won't have to do much; the landscape itself will be enough to create that winter wonderland theme. If the weather turns, we could easily move the wedding indoor. Since your guest list is relatively small, we would have no problem holding the reception inside."

Trini looked thoughtful. Lake Tahoe, where she and Jason reconnected two years ago, somehow it seemed symbolic. "I like it, but are you sure, Billy?"

Billy smiled, "It would be my pleasure, and I can honestly say nothing would make me happier."

Trini turned to Jason, an unspoken question in her eyes, and Jason grinned. After all, all he wanted was to marry Trini. "Thank you, Billy. Now, can you also explain everything to Kim?"

Kimberly had whined and pouted, but in the end, she had agreed to a compromise. Trini had allowed her to be in charge of decorations providing it was simple and natural. But Kim had to promise to stay away from her wedding dress, stop trying to talk them into inviting everyone, and Hell would freeze over first before Trini would commission an ice sculpture.

~End flashback~

Trini turned away from the balcony when she heard a sharp knock on the door. Kimberly stood outside with Mrs. Scott and Mrs. Kwan.

"Oh, Trini, you look gorgeous," said Kimberly, wearing a pink chiffon gown with ruffle detailing. The dress, although beautiful, was a little plainer than Kim would have liked. But considering what the bride was wearing, Kim had to settle for something less dramatic. While initially she had vehemently objected to the dress Trini had wanted to wear, now looking at the bride standing in front of her, she had to admit that she was wrong. The dress was extremely plain without any kind of ornamentation, but the heavy satin was somehow a perfect foil to Trini's rich, dark hair and smooth, milky complexion. While Kim had no doubt that Trini would have looked magnificent in yards and yards of taffetas or a heavily beaded gown, this unembellished white gown complemented her in ways that Kim never thought was possible. Looking at her best friend for so many years, Kimberly finally understood why Trini didn't need all the extras. The girl standing in front of her radiated such light and happiness that she put everything else to shame.

"Trini, you look so beautiful," Mrs. Kwan said, hugging her carefully.

"Thank you, Mom."

Mrs. Scott also hugged Trini, then she gently pushed her back slightly and looked her over from head to toe, "I waited seventeen years for this moment, and you look just lovely, absolutely exquisite."

"Wait, I don't understand," said Kim. "You waited seventeen years for Trini or you waited since Jason was ten for his big day?"

Mrs. Scott smiled with an enigmatic twinkle in her eyes, "I told Tricia the first day I met Trini that I was meeting my future daughter-in-law. I might have been joking at the time, but it was pretty obvious that Jason was smitten."

Trini smiled shyly, "he was?"

Mrs. Scott chuckled, "he definitely was. I could tell just by the way he acted around you; he was intrigued and protective. He couldn't stop talking about you that night, and I knew then that you were going to be someone who would become really important to him."

**

Over at the guesthouse, Jason was trying to fasten his tie in front of the mirror without too much success. He hated ties. Finally giving up in frustration, he yelled out the room, "Zack!"

Zack walked into the room looking stylish and comfortable in his two piece dark grey suit with a pink tie that matched the color of Kimberly's Maid of Honor dress. "What's up? Not having cold feet, I hope."

Jason held up his black and red stripe tie and grinned boyishly, "Does the best man's job include tying a tie?"

Zack chuckled and took the tie from Jason, "how is it that a man who knows every obscure ways to tie a knot, bends, hitches, splices and seizing can not tie a simple tie?"

Jason shrugged and returned good-naturedly, "I can only be good at so many things, otherwise, it would be completely unfair to mortals like you."

"Keep that up, and you wouldn't have to worry about mortals like me."

Jason grinned, "I'm totally contended to spend the rest of my life with just my goddess of a wife."

The last two years had seen many changes, most of them good. Trini had finally gotten her company up and running with Jason as her partner. Initially it was a tough sell. Jason didn't want any part of it as he felt he was cashing in on her dreams, her accomplishments. It had taken the combined effort of Trini and Jason's parents to make him realizes that she needed help, and she trusted him more than anyone. With his Navy Seal background, he was perfect to head the personal security section of their business, leaving Trini free to concentrate on growing the technical security side. Never had Jason been more appreciative of his dad for his financial advise. His investments in the stock market while he was in the Navy, combined with the enlistment bonus that he had received, enabled Jason to become an equal partner. It was extremely hard work in the beginning, with finding premises, setting up shop, purchasing equipment, hiring and training a team of bodyguards, not to mention cross training each other on their respective jobs. While it was Jason's responsibility to provide training to their newly hired bodyguards, Trini knew every aspect of his job, from protection protocols, physical intervention, to threat detection to tactical planning. She had attended his training sessions, discussed strategies and offered updated technological techniques. Jason, on the other hand, had accompanied her and helped with the installation of equipments with new clients, not to mention taking crash courses from Trini on encryptions and building firewalls. While they didn't agree one hundred percent of the time, they respected each other enough to be open-minded, to listen, and willing to compromise. After nearly six months of working twenty-hour days, they finally had their company up and running. They had decided to set up office in Los Angeles, closer to home and close to their friends. Crimson, of course, became one of their first contracted clients, and their list of clients just kept getting longer and longer. They had recovered their investment within a year and had become one of the best-known protection agencies in the southern California area.

"Isn't that wife-to-be?" Billy asked from the door, stepping into the room with Tommy.

Jason turned to look at his friends, "hey, is Trini okay? Have you guys seen her?"

Tommy smiled and looked at his watch, "don't worry, bro, she hasn't climbed off the balcony yet, but there's still twenty-two minutes before the wedding, so there's still time for her to wise up. "

Jason looked fearful for a nanosecond, and then his expression settled calmly, "she wised up when she came back to me. Seriously, hasn't anyone seen her?"

Billy shook his head, "Kim wouldn't even let us up the stairs, but everything is all set. The reverend just got here. Everything looks great; it's absolutely beautiful out there with that extra foot of fresh snow that we got last night. The skies are cleared; even Mother Nature is offering you two her blessings."

"Billy, thanks, man, we couldn't have done all this without you."

**

Jason stood and watched as his bride walked down the pathway with her father. His Trini, his bride, she was absolutely breathtaking, and she was coming to him. A kaleidoscope of images flashed through his head: Trini clutching a container of chocolate chips cookies walking down the street of his childhood home; a thirteen year old Trini receiving her first black belt; a fifteen year old Trini pondering the merits of becoming a Power Ranger, a seventeen year old Trini confessing her love; their breakup; their reunion, and all the in-betweens. And then his vision cleared, everything else was in the past. This ethereal creature walking toward him was his future, and his future had never looked as promising as it did at that moment.

Trini felt like she was dreaming, from the first step she took, to her father handing her over to Jason, the opening prayer, their wedding vows, exchanging rings, lighting of the unity candle to benediction. Everything was both real and surreal. Looking at the platinum band on her ring finger, and then seeing the matching one on Jason's, she looked into his eyes and beamed. They were married. She was finally Mrs. Trini Scott, and everything was just perfect.

The End.

* * *

Well, this is the end of the story. I had a lot of fun writing it, and I hope you guys had fun reading it. If the story disappointed you, then I apologize. Thank you for reading, and for all you awesome feedbackers, you guys are the greatest. Thank you!


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